Review: Source Code
A high-energy, moderately intelligent thriller.
And for his next act, Duncan Jones - writer and director of the successful arthouse sci-fi of the Moon - shows the source code, another entertaining story with confidence identity-based anxiety. Source code is less introspective and more ambitious than the first film of Jones, but is more known and accessible in all the best ways.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Army pilot who wakes up after an accident in Afghanistan to be involved in a military experiment that allows the issue to see the final eight minutes of the life of a recently deceased person - to live, basically, as the person's final moments. What is the advantage of this? Besides being a fun thing to do, which theoretically could inhabit the mind of a murder victim and determine who killed him.
On its surface, is a source of high energy, moderately intelligent thriller about correcting the mistakes and forgiveness of the past. (To do this, Stevens has problems with his father to be resolved.) The movie could have deep background that could be decompressed with additional views ... but I suspect that there is an equal opportunity to all fall apart under scrutiny. When the Moon, Jones wrote, had a dazzling wit to it, the source code (written by Ben Ripley) is more accurate. Jones does not apply a lot of personality to the mind-bending ideas, and could use a little gussying up. It's fun to watch where you are going now, however.
Ranking Quentin Tarantino’s Films
6. Death ProofDeath Proof is a wickedly brilliant slice of tart, trash cinema, posing as one sort of film halfway through and later revealing itself to be something stronger. The great thing about Tarantino is his love of cinema and his love for his characters. Sure, he objectifies them, but he also manages to respect them enough to elevate his female characters above the exploitative archetypes they are portraying. I don’t want to make Death Proof more than it is but the fact remains it is a lot more than it should be. It’s a pleasurable little diversion from a major filmmaker that I’d normally call forgettable were it not for the memorable characters (particularly Tracie Thoms’ Kim and Rosario Dawson’s Abernathy) and one of the all-time greatest car chases (featuring the amazing, feline Zoe Bell).5. Jackie BrownThe prints of two distinct writers (Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard) are all over Jackie Brown and they mesh beautifully. Jackie Brown was quickly labeled a disappointment by critics but a sign of maturation from its fans. To me it’s just a really strong character-driven caper. Yes, this is the rare “hip” film about people well past their primes, but both Pam Grier and Robert Forster are terrific. Bridget Fonda is most surprising as a feisty surfer girl who has also seen better days.4. Reservoir DogsWhen I watched Reservoir Dogs on VHS many years ago I got that electric jolt, that excitement that I rarely feel these days (except maybe when Tarantino or the Coens are releasing a new movie). On the surface, it shouldn’t have been anything exceptional, but the dialogue was so funny and so fierce, the performances were so on point that I finished the movie, waited for the tape to rewind and started the movie all over again. If I’m a Tarantino addict, Reservoir Dogswas the first time I inhaled. I’ve been hooked ever since.
3. Inglourious BasterdsI struggled with placing these top three but I do believe the following films are the absolute pinnacle when it comes to Tarantino’s craft and ability to entertain. I knew when the credits rolled in 2009 that I had seen the year’s best film. Nothing would beat it. Now I’m a pretty optimistic fellow. Cynical on the outside, optimistic on the inside. AndAvatar was my most highly-anticipated film of 2009. But I knew, nothing — not even another great James Cameron entertainment — was going to dethrone Basterds. It’s a circus film filled with freaks, lions, clowns and wonderful narrative acrobatics. And I loved how it blended different genres (the western, the World War II men-on-a-mission movie) and wrapped it all in a love letter to cinema. This is probably Tarantino’s best Brian De Palma and Leone imitation, as he is able to ratchet up tension better than ever before with at least two scenes that will go down as all-time classics (the brilliant, Leonesque opening and the masterfully put together confrontation in a bar basement). What I love about Tarantino’s movies is if you tell people what they’re about — and you actually listen to yourself — there’s no way they should work. That they also manage to blow almost every other film you’ve seen out of the water is a feat only a ringmaster of Tarantino’s caliber could pull off.
2. Pulp FictionQuentin’s serving of three unconventional gangster stories was pretty much the greatest movie on the planet when I saw it in 1994, even after seeing Reservoir Dogs, I still hadn’t seen anything like it. Who were these characters? What universe did they live in? Where could I get Samuel L. Jackson’s hair? Pulp Fiction is yet another movie for cinema’s most faithful lovers by a self-described “movie geek” and it’s as potent a crime film today as it was seventeen years ago.1. Kill BillOf course I’m going to cheat and lump the two Kill Bill movies together because ultimately that’s why it’s number one: together they are the best action epic in the last twenty years this side of Lord of the Rings. Tarantino has been flirting with the western genre for a long time now, particularly in Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (and if rumors are correct, he will finally make due on his flirtations). There is a connection between the samurai film and the western and he exploits that bond in a hugely successful fashion here. The Bride is his Man With No Name, his Yojimbo, his Sanjuro, only she carries a very real emotional investment for the viewer (Oh yes, Uma Thurman should have been nominated for her work as The Bride). These movies are very aware of their own movieness. That isn’t the flaw, that is the fun. When The Bride’s (obviously model) airplane flies over a model city of Tokyo with model cars moving every so awkwardly, when she hops on a Kawasaki wearing Bruce Lee’s yellow track suit from Game of Death to the Green Hornet theme, we aren’t laughing Uma Thurman’s Bride off the screen, we are cheering her on because we are engaged in an experience with the filmmaker that I would argue is unmatched by any other experience with any other filmmaker today. When she calls out O-Ren Ishii for battle, when Budd looks into her eyes solemnly as she is being buried alive, these are real emotionally driven moments that the film somehow, some way earns through the mad absurdity of Tarantino’s vision. And he’s throwing a lot of vision your way.
Review: Battle: Los Angeles
Sheer nonsense at best and annoyingly pointless at its worst.
Everyone loves to hate in Los Angeles for being too big, too full of traffic, and too difficult to overcome. Well, those who hate, joy and delight in the prospect of Los Angeles being attacked, especially by invading nameless, faceless stranger in place of the very real threats that concern us. It is possible that no one likes to see Los Angeles destroyed more than the Lakers, and as highways collapsed and the main city center was burned down during the Battle: The Angelesthere was a general murmur of satisfaction in the crowd . There is nothing you can do about the traffic on a given day, but forces beyond their control were destroying everything, so there is something very cathartic about it.
As for plot goes, without giving too much away, if you've seen Independence Day, will have an idea of what is happening. When a large-scale attack against the world by an unknown group of alien invaders begins, a group of Marines stationed near Los Angeles should make your way to a police station to rescue civilians and find a safe route back before any arbitrary attack occurs. The usual cast of characters here is predictable: the young lieutenant's new wife and unborn child, the Navy planning her upcoming wedding, the boy's dead brother, the recruit virgin, and the grizzled sergeant who seek to leave the service, just to name a few. The few faces that will recognize Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan, and not much can be said of any of them in the form of action.
A rarity among many is the fact that Los Angeles is quite unrecognizable in the film, much of the action takes place in Santa Monica, which is quite indifferent, but no pictures of the Hollywood sign getting blown up or anything thereof. I guess the reason is that Los Angeles really is a lot like any other city consumed by urban sprawl - we have no Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower to distinguish and differentiate their place. Instead our exports are our ambassadors around the world: the beaches, good weather, TV shows, movies and movie stars. Ultimately meaningless and yet very pleasant in a strange way, Battle: Los Angeles is meaningless at best and nonsense at its worst annoying.
Review: Red Riding Hood
A dumb mess, stylish but ludicrous.
"Little Red Riding Hood," as many fairy tales, is a dark and gruesome history to be traumatizing to children more than they do. If a smart filmmaker wanted to emphasize that side of it, actually carry out the horror, maybe even a wolf into a werewolf, a gothic romance set the balance of the supernatural elements - well, that would be a good thing to do. Someone should do that.
Someone other than Catherine Hardwicke, I mean. This he did, called Little Red Riding Hood is a silly mess, stylish, but ridiculous. Paralyzed from the beginning of the script by David Leslie Johnson cheesy (orphans), Hardwicke makes things worse with a self-serious tone that is grossly at odds with the frivolity inherent in the material. For you see, this is more than a fantasy tale set in the Middle Ages in a small village near a dark forest. It is also a soap opera! With forbidden passions and love triangles and all! Hardwicke directed Twilight, you may recall, apparently would like to continue directing, again and again.
movie you want to feel like a romantic drama and a supernatural thriller, but it feels like it or not. What you probably needed was a vampire.
Review: Rango
Sharp, well-made, and interesting.
Range may well be one of the first animation films in recent years that it is difficult to place in all the best ways. A people in the western city of entertainment, with menacing bandits, intimidated, and plenty of sticks, is also long range, not at all easy to see, and noticeably strange. But that might be what it does well.
The basic plot is pretty simple: After a serious accident, a chameleon finds its way into a small city filled with all kinds of desert creatures and beset by drought and bandits. Through his bravado, range becomes sheriff and effectively to the height of his great speech in the face of big problems.
Johnny Depp voices range, and his voice is so chameleon-like character, but this should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with his career. Isla Fisher is charming if unrecognizable as beans, a local lizard trying to save his father's farm. Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, and Timothy Olyphant also appear, among others.
In one hour and 47 minutes, the film is long, but with rising ticket prices is good to feel that we got value for money. Range is strong and well made and interesting, but lacks the emotional resonance of a movie like How to Train Your Dragon. And that may well be my problem with it. I was expecting something easy and this film was a risk, took the opportunity to be ugly, being a bit long and complicated, and although it is fairly closely the conventions of the genre, is ultimately quite different from what we have seen in the past few years.
Review: The Adjustment Bureau
A solid concept, well executed.
I am pleased to report that The Adjustment Bureau, partTruman Show, part of the game, voltage characteristics along legitimate. Concept is also relatively high, since it is an adaptation of a short story by Philip K. Dick, Scanner Darkly to andTotal Recall, and Minority Report. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt carry most of burden, and do so with professionalism. A solid and well-executed concept that forces us to think a little? Win!
The themes of The Adjustment Bureau doubles. The most prominent is the idea that there is a master plan in place, controlled by a higher power, which sends agents to give form and shape reality as necessary. Your alarm did not go? It might be sending officers to be adjusted. Missing the bus? The world might be getting back on track. The major force behind all this is known by the agents as "President", and humans rarely aware of the President. Matt Damon, who plays a songressman up-and-coming candidate for senator in the great state of New York, made aware of the agents, and reveals his life from there. You can imagine what it would be disconcerting to look behind the curtain of a higher power, and Damon vacillates between disbelief and poverty. Compounding the problem is that agents of this "power" have decided not to follow up an acquaintance of the lady who just made (Emily Blunt), instead of telling him to forget it and let it go. Naturally, you can not emotionally fulfilling.
The second issue of The Adjustment Bureau is buried just below the surface, but it's there, and is the idea of the effect of a soulmate in motivation. Are those who yearn for most, it can not find happiness, they kept pushing people beyond all reason to achieve greatness? Is the disc comes from the will, and did not achieve, love? Damon is forced to deal with this idea in mind, since his political career is at stake, to a large extent determined by their romantic choices.
The most enjoyable aspect of the film is that it allows us, as groups, to discover and consider the organic world. Who are these mysterious and powerful agents? What the hell is the master plan? Damon should go with your heart or your intellect, especially given their chance against a force omniscient? The Office of adjustment has been thinking of all angles, and credit is a new breed of director George Nolfi that never leaves the accelerator pedal. The momentum of the film argues, and the lack of 3-D effects, and other gimmicky The Adjustment Bureau gives a seriousness lacking in most versions of March.
Review: Drive Angry
Feels like the very reason we can't have nice things.
Angry Drive is all jagged edges and broken promises. Take the title as a descriptor of simple, easy to implement. Except they are not driving all the tricks that many, in any case, this is a great movie road trip, with more shots Charger Chevelle SS 454 69 or just moseying down the old road. And then consider the "anger" in appearance, once again missing. In any case, we have a cold and distant search for revenge, but none of passion or depth of the word "anger" spread. But what if we do not separate words - maybe Madas Nicolas Cage is behind the wheel? No, no joy can be found there either. It is efficient driving, perhaps even lethal driving, but nothing approaching driving angry. In fact, you can find a better example of "driving mad" in a movie called "Groundhog Day, and that even after the star encourages Groundhog not drive angry. So yes, Drive Angry, that's right nightmare of the city the first time.
Angry Drive is in the unfortunate position of having no real reason to exist, terrible dialogue, no plot to speak, and the relatively poor effects. The good news? Less than two hours, the soundtrack is abysmal, and there are a lot of laughs. However, if care professionals can try to make a movie so terrible I do not see any reason why that can not be rewarded with only our contempt and derision.
Review: I Am Number Four
An enjoyable romp.
It makes perfect sense that a film produced by Michael Bay, opens with a shot around the world. Then, in the pan, closer, closer, until finally we are in a hut in the rainforest. Two men are clearly in hiding, on the run, each evening comfortably in his hammock, trying to get some sleep. But wait! A noise at the door - if that may be going over them in such a remote place? Mogadorians! What is a Mogadorian? It's a bad guy! Oh, no, they pursue one of the "good" guys! But who are these "good" guys?
That's basically the plot of I'm the number four, the story of the "good" kids are sequentially persecuted and killed by Mogadorians. There are nine (total) quasi-heroes, Loriens call, and each is protected by something like a bodyguard or mentor. To give away more of the plot would be a disservice, so let's call it a "thriller", say the hunters and the prey, and break down who does what in the film.
Am I Number four is a thriller that moves in February, and a film that desperately cries out for a sequel. It is not perfect, and there are some random excerpts seem to be a function of addressing a history as long, but overall the film works and is entertaining routine. The young actors bring the story prominently on their shoulders and concepts presented are convincing. Perhaps the recent history of February as a movie "dump" be overly generous to me, but I I'm the number four was a pleasant romp.
Review: Unknown
A mundane action vehicle.
Well, yes, eventually becomes known the kind of movie in which an amnesiac tough guy tells an enemy, "I forget everything. I remember how to kill a hole **." What is a pity, because for a while is not that kind of movie at all.
The psychological thriller, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (orphans), Liam Neeson stars as an American botanist named Martin Harris - or "Doctor Martin Harris," as he continues to stand out. Dr. Martin Harris and his wife ice, Liz (January Jones) are in Berlin for a biotechnology conference when Martin was injured in an accident. He wakes in a hospital four days after finding no one in your life have no idea who he is.
But eventually the plot grows increasingly absurd, becoming an intriguing mystery, Memento-style action in a more mundane vehicle. The explanation for the situation of Martin's smart, how everything goes after receiving the explanation, not so much. (And the less said about white January Jones' performance of emotion, the better.) Neeson is always magnetic, however, even when it's just a repeat performance and delivery Taken cheese line, as is the time need to do here.
Review: Gnomeo and Juliet
A children's film that is reasonably cute.
As a result, it is not all that much gnome-related humor. In addition, the tenuous connection between the divine tragedy of Shakespeare and Gnomeo and Juliet lies solely on the word "Romeo" which sounds something like the word "Gnome". We assume that if the bard had named her playRichard and Juliet, then Elton John has never been involved and fully exploited the genre and comedy gnome would be gone forever dormant, a holder of a game of strange words in the road not taken . Of course, that is neither here nor there, and we're basically left with a children's film that is reasonably nice. Douglas Adams might have called it "mostly harmless."
This updated version of Montagues and Capulets has been simplified for young people, but there are a lot of jokes for fans of Shakespeare. Two neighbors (who happen to hate each other) each have a huge garden filled with gnome. Gnomes on one side is called the red, the other group is known as the blues. So, is Crips vs Blood, gnome style! The gnomes are consistent with the logic of some principles, human beings are always hard to see them, are fragile, and lawnmowers race against each other. So far, so good.
So what's left? This does not reach high artistic levels of Pixar or Dreamworks standards Animation highly entertaining, although children under 10 should enjoy it. The 3-D is relatively useless, but that seems to be in the great tradition of 3-D in those days. Gnomeo and Juliet is a movie about finding love gnomes, rising above their differences, and Elton John. Not much to it, but it is completely absurd visual experience. As such, gnome if you want.
Review: Just Go With It
This movie is exactly what you think it's going to be.
Just Go With It wants to drag in a web of deception and hilarity, like writing with us, as it serves a tired gag after another without ever daring to do something useful. Simple demand Just Go With It not only becomes useful words of advice but also an easy excuse, and finally a desperate appeal.
Danny (Adam Sandler) is a successful plastic surgeon who is his assistant and long time friend Kathy (Jennifer Aniston) who pretends to be his ex-wife to cover up a lie, he says Palmer, a hot chick ( Brooklyn Decker) has fallen in love with. As things get more serious between Danny and Palmer, everything starts to spiral out of control when it suddenly seems that Danny and Katherine have children, and after a few more lies, everyone ends up in Hawaii trying to get to know each others. Over time, what was but a false relationship to help a friend begins to become something more, but Danny and Katherine recognize it for what it is?
Just go with it is almost two hours, and it is difficult to figure out why. The relationship between Decker and Danny Palmer Sandler is hasty and poorly developed to move us along the right in the thick of the confusion in Hawaii and around the world, except Palmer is a joke: trying to help old Danny win her heart. Palmer is well-intentioned, sweet and beautiful, but the growing feeling among Danny and Katherine are undeniable and, finally, the public is not sure where to commit. There is no real villain here, pretty people trying to break into the world. Which is not terrible weight, and it is not convincing, sure as hell should be fun. What is not.
This film is exactly what you think is going to be: entirely predictable, minimally fun, and pretty boring. If you're a big fan of anyone in the movie, go see it, but otherwise just wait and rent it.
Review: I Love You Phillip Morris
Charismatic and entertaining.
A con man who blames his crimes on being a "fool for love." A chameleon who never went to college but passed convincing lawyers, doctors, financial managers, and more to keep the homosexual love of his life (and himself) in matching Mercedes and jet skis. A clever switch of the prison that brings out the doors of the penitentiary in front in bright scarlet shorts. I Love You Phillip Morris is the stuff of movie plots unlikely - however, all true.
Steven Russell, also known as "With the King," the slippery genius that inspired the film, is currently serving a life sentence of 144 years for a curriculum vitae that includes legendary escape criminal felony and embezzlement. Is so closely guarded that happens 23 hours a day in solitary confinement. After seeing Jim Carrey escape justice in their shoes at the director and screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa biopic optimistic, Russell amazed Brit paper The Observer, "They have it down.'s Way of speaking, gestures, clothing - everything. It's surreal. "
As for the nostalgia of the score nasal romantic, warm and cheerful lighting that makes up the cell walls of the sunny yellow stripped Morris', or the happiness of love smitten imprisoned waltz "Chances Are" in his cell ... these details are another matter filmmaker, perhaps an extension of stimulating ferment Morris. Ficarra and Requa When allude to the darker reality of prison is to pull jokes on the dangers of beautiful children's chair. They also appear to detach pieces of Russell Knight facade to expose their desperation to be loved and not the left, your child's panic when his cover is blown, in addition to its self-proclaimed final ruin: his passion for Phillip Morris. After he falls in love with him, everything he does, cons (these do not count?) Y breaks revolve around Morris. Carrey captures brilliantly all - disarming wit and sincerity Russell - with very little of his usual shtick rubber face. And he and McGregor make adorable lovebirds.
The same happens with this film reveals the real Phillip Morris? Is there a real hiding under his many masks Morris? As Morris makes a contrite Russell, who declares his love after one of its plans to waste his happy home and land him in hot water: "How I can know you're not kidding?" Russell's response: "No". I Love You Phillip Morris, and Russell, could be one of with great, but everything is so charismatic and funny, you will not mind.
Review: No Strings Attached
A perfectly acceptable romantic comedy.
No strings attached want to pretend that he got the idea of friends with benefits, that somehow this concept has been long and not disputed by gum, it's time for a real exploration of this important issue facing our society. "Can there be sex without hurting someone?" The film leads us to consider, and from the first moment it seems impossible. The problem is that the veteran director Ivan Reitman is not breaking new ground or exploring anything other than the desire very modern and deeply rooted in it all, and we as an audience were pitted against the characters just as we encourage them into a relationship like that make a half-hearted attempt to keep it simple. Love seems to need to overcome barriers and obstacles in this case are not time or space, or related to the family, but the fears and concerns that shape our daily lives.
No Strings Attached is not much fun, the comic moments are the most tired tropes that had been upset over a decade. However, the movie is somewhat realistic, and a complete lie in many others, but at its worst is still a perfectly acceptable romantic comedy. The female characters are capable and strong, if not a little stupid, men are full of bravado and machismo that vanishes when needed, and there is a shortage of idiots in a single line (just a violent offender comes to mind). And let's listen for a film in Los Angeles who actually use the city: Adam is a wizard (unlikely attractive) aspiring writer in a television program that Glee-esque, Emma hangs in the center and the final pair, even in the most famous art museum in LA County. Considering 500 days of summer trying to convince us that Los Angeles was actually more like San Francisco or New York, without any commitment like Los Angeles, the way it is, just bright and clean. No Strings Attached will not surprise or enthrall you, but it is a good way to spend a few hours.
Review: The Way Back
Review: Source Code
A high-energy, moderately intelligent thriller.
And for his next act, Duncan Jones - writer and director of the successful arthouse sci-fi of the Moon - shows the source code, another entertaining story with confidence identity-based anxiety. Source code is less introspective and more ambitious than the first film of Jones, but is more known and accessible in all the best ways.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Army pilot who wakes up after an accident in Afghanistan to be involved in a military experiment that allows the issue to see the final eight minutes of the life of a recently deceased person - to live, basically, as the person's final moments. What is the advantage of this? Besides being a fun thing to do, which theoretically could inhabit the mind of a murder victim and determine who killed him.
On its surface, is a source of high energy, moderately intelligent thriller about correcting the mistakes and forgiveness of the past. (To do this, Stevens has problems with his father to be resolved.) The movie could have deep background that could be decompressed with additional views ... but I suspect that there is an equal opportunity to all fall apart under scrutiny. When the Moon, Jones wrote, had a dazzling wit to it, the source code (written by Ben Ripley) is more accurate. Jones does not apply a lot of personality to the mind-bending ideas, and could use a little gussying up. It's fun to watch where you are going now, however.
Ranking Quentin Tarantino’s Films
6. Death ProofDeath Proof is a wickedly brilliant slice of tart, trash cinema, posing as one sort of film halfway through and later revealing itself to be something stronger. The great thing about Tarantino is his love of cinema and his love for his characters. Sure, he objectifies them, but he also manages to respect them enough to elevate his female characters above the exploitative archetypes they are portraying. I don’t want to make Death Proof more than it is but the fact remains it is a lot more than it should be. It’s a pleasurable little diversion from a major filmmaker that I’d normally call forgettable were it not for the memorable characters (particularly Tracie Thoms’ Kim and Rosario Dawson’s Abernathy) and one of the all-time greatest car chases (featuring the amazing, feline Zoe Bell).5. Jackie BrownThe prints of two distinct writers (Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard) are all over Jackie Brown and they mesh beautifully. Jackie Brown was quickly labeled a disappointment by critics but a sign of maturation from its fans. To me it’s just a really strong character-driven caper. Yes, this is the rare “hip” film about people well past their primes, but both Pam Grier and Robert Forster are terrific. Bridget Fonda is most surprising as a feisty surfer girl who has also seen better days.4. Reservoir DogsWhen I watched Reservoir Dogs on VHS many years ago I got that electric jolt, that excitement that I rarely feel these days (except maybe when Tarantino or the Coens are releasing a new movie). On the surface, it shouldn’t have been anything exceptional, but the dialogue was so funny and so fierce, the performances were so on point that I finished the movie, waited for the tape to rewind and started the movie all over again. If I’m a Tarantino addict, Reservoir Dogswas the first time I inhaled. I’ve been hooked ever since.3. Inglourious BasterdsI struggled with placing these top three but I do believe the following films are the absolute pinnacle when it comes to Tarantino’s craft and ability to entertain. I knew when the credits rolled in 2009 that I had seen the year’s best film. Nothing would beat it. Now I’m a pretty optimistic fellow. Cynical on the outside, optimistic on the inside. AndAvatar was my most highly-anticipated film of 2009. But I knew, nothing — not even another great James Cameron entertainment — was going to dethrone Basterds. It’s a circus film filled with freaks, lions, clowns and wonderful narrative acrobatics. And I loved how it blended different genres (the western, the World War II men-on-a-mission movie) and wrapped it all in a love letter to cinema. This is probably Tarantino’s best Brian De Palma and Leone imitation, as he is able to ratchet up tension better than ever before with at least two scenes that will go down as all-time classics (the brilliant, Leonesque opening and the masterfully put together confrontation in a bar basement). What I love about Tarantino’s movies is if you tell people what they’re about — and you actually listen to yourself — there’s no way they should work. That they also manage to blow almost every other film you’ve seen out of the water is a feat only a ringmaster of Tarantino’s caliber could pull off.2. Pulp FictionQuentin’s serving of three unconventional gangster stories was pretty much the greatest movie on the planet when I saw it in 1994, even after seeing Reservoir Dogs, I still hadn’t seen anything like it. Who were these characters? What universe did they live in? Where could I get Samuel L. Jackson’s hair? Pulp Fiction is yet another movie for cinema’s most faithful lovers by a self-described “movie geek” and it’s as potent a crime film today as it was seventeen years ago.1. Kill BillOf course I’m going to cheat and lump the two Kill Bill movies together because ultimately that’s why it’s number one: together they are the best action epic in the last twenty years this side of Lord of the Rings. Tarantino has been flirting with the western genre for a long time now, particularly in Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (and if rumors are correct, he will finally make due on his flirtations). There is a connection between the samurai film and the western and he exploits that bond in a hugely successful fashion here. The Bride is his Man With No Name, his Yojimbo, his Sanjuro, only she carries a very real emotional investment for the viewer (Oh yes, Uma Thurman should have been nominated for her work as The Bride). These movies are very aware of their own movieness. That isn’t the flaw, that is the fun. When The Bride’s (obviously model) airplane flies over a model city of Tokyo with model cars moving every so awkwardly, when she hops on a Kawasaki wearing Bruce Lee’s yellow track suit from Game of Death to the Green Hornet theme, we aren’t laughing Uma Thurman’s Bride off the screen, we are cheering her on because we are engaged in an experience with the filmmaker that I would argue is unmatched by any other experience with any other filmmaker today. When she calls out O-Ren Ishii for battle, when Budd looks into her eyes solemnly as she is being buried alive, these are real emotionally driven moments that the film somehow, some way earns through the mad absurdity of Tarantino’s vision. And he’s throwing a lot of vision your way.
Review: Battle: Los Angeles
Sheer nonsense at best and annoyingly pointless at its worst.
Everyone loves to hate in Los Angeles for being too big, too full of traffic, and too difficult to overcome. Well, those who hate, joy and delight in the prospect of Los Angeles being attacked, especially by invading nameless, faceless stranger in place of the very real threats that concern us. It is possible that no one likes to see Los Angeles destroyed more than the Lakers, and as highways collapsed and the main city center was burned down during the Battle: The Angelesthere was a general murmur of satisfaction in the crowd . There is nothing you can do about the traffic on a given day, but forces beyond their control were destroying everything, so there is something very cathartic about it.
As for plot goes, without giving too much away, if you've seen Independence Day, will have an idea of what is happening. When a large-scale attack against the world by an unknown group of alien invaders begins, a group of Marines stationed near Los Angeles should make your way to a police station to rescue civilians and find a safe route back before any arbitrary attack occurs. The usual cast of characters here is predictable: the young lieutenant's new wife and unborn child, the Navy planning her upcoming wedding, the boy's dead brother, the recruit virgin, and the grizzled sergeant who seek to leave the service, just to name a few. The few faces that will recognize Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan, and not much can be said of any of them in the form of action.
A rarity among many is the fact that Los Angeles is quite unrecognizable in the film, much of the action takes place in Santa Monica, which is quite indifferent, but no pictures of the Hollywood sign getting blown up or anything thereof. I guess the reason is that Los Angeles really is a lot like any other city consumed by urban sprawl - we have no Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower to distinguish and differentiate their place. Instead our exports are our ambassadors around the world: the beaches, good weather, TV shows, movies and movie stars. Ultimately meaningless and yet very pleasant in a strange way, Battle: Los Angeles is meaningless at best and nonsense at its worst annoying.
Review: Red Riding Hood
A dumb mess, stylish but ludicrous.
"Little Red Riding Hood," as many fairy tales, is a dark and gruesome history to be traumatizing to children more than they do. If a smart filmmaker wanted to emphasize that side of it, actually carry out the horror, maybe even a wolf into a werewolf, a gothic romance set the balance of the supernatural elements - well, that would be a good thing to do. Someone should do that.
Someone other than Catherine Hardwicke, I mean. This he did, called Little Red Riding Hood is a silly mess, stylish, but ridiculous. Paralyzed from the beginning of the script by David Leslie Johnson cheesy (orphans), Hardwicke makes things worse with a self-serious tone that is grossly at odds with the frivolity inherent in the material. For you see, this is more than a fantasy tale set in the Middle Ages in a small village near a dark forest. It is also a soap opera! With forbidden passions and love triangles and all! Hardwicke directed Twilight, you may recall, apparently would like to continue directing, again and again.
movie you want to feel like a romantic drama and a supernatural thriller, but it feels like it or not. What you probably needed was a vampire.
Review: Rango
Sharp, well-made, and interesting.
Range may well be one of the first animation films in recent years that it is difficult to place in all the best ways. A people in the western city of entertainment, with menacing bandits, intimidated, and plenty of sticks, is also long range, not at all easy to see, and noticeably strange. But that might be what it does well.
The basic plot is pretty simple: After a serious accident, a chameleon finds its way into a small city filled with all kinds of desert creatures and beset by drought and bandits. Through his bravado, range becomes sheriff and effectively to the height of his great speech in the face of big problems.
Johnny Depp voices range, and his voice is so chameleon-like character, but this should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with his career. Isla Fisher is charming if unrecognizable as beans, a local lizard trying to save his father's farm. Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, and Timothy Olyphant also appear, among others.
In one hour and 47 minutes, the film is long, but with rising ticket prices is good to feel that we got value for money. Range is strong and well made and interesting, but lacks the emotional resonance of a movie like How to Train Your Dragon. And that may well be my problem with it. I was expecting something easy and this film was a risk, took the opportunity to be ugly, being a bit long and complicated, and although it is fairly closely the conventions of the genre, is ultimately quite different from what we have seen in the past few years.
Review: The Adjustment Bureau
A solid concept, well executed.
I am pleased to report that The Adjustment Bureau, partTruman Show, part of the game, voltage characteristics along legitimate. Concept is also relatively high, since it is an adaptation of a short story by Philip K. Dick, Scanner Darkly to andTotal Recall, and Minority Report. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt carry most of burden, and do so with professionalism. A solid and well-executed concept that forces us to think a little? Win!
The themes of The Adjustment Bureau doubles. The most prominent is the idea that there is a master plan in place, controlled by a higher power, which sends agents to give form and shape reality as necessary. Your alarm did not go? It might be sending officers to be adjusted. Missing the bus? The world might be getting back on track. The major force behind all this is known by the agents as "President", and humans rarely aware of the President. Matt Damon, who plays a songressman up-and-coming candidate for senator in the great state of New York, made aware of the agents, and reveals his life from there. You can imagine what it would be disconcerting to look behind the curtain of a higher power, and Damon vacillates between disbelief and poverty. Compounding the problem is that agents of this "power" have decided not to follow up an acquaintance of the lady who just made (Emily Blunt), instead of telling him to forget it and let it go. Naturally, you can not emotionally fulfilling.
The second issue of The Adjustment Bureau is buried just below the surface, but it's there, and is the idea of the effect of a soulmate in motivation. Are those who yearn for most, it can not find happiness, they kept pushing people beyond all reason to achieve greatness? Is the disc comes from the will, and did not achieve, love? Damon is forced to deal with this idea in mind, since his political career is at stake, to a large extent determined by their romantic choices.
The most enjoyable aspect of the film is that it allows us, as groups, to discover and consider the organic world. Who are these mysterious and powerful agents? What the hell is the master plan? Damon should go with your heart or your intellect, especially given their chance against a force omniscient? The Office of adjustment has been thinking of all angles, and credit is a new breed of director George Nolfi that never leaves the accelerator pedal. The momentum of the film argues, and the lack of 3-D effects, and other gimmicky The Adjustment Bureau gives a seriousness lacking in most versions of March.
Review: Drive Angry
Feels like the very reason we can't have nice things.
Angry Drive is all jagged edges and broken promises. Take the title as a descriptor of simple, easy to implement. Except they are not driving all the tricks that many, in any case, this is a great movie road trip, with more shots Charger Chevelle SS 454 69 or just moseying down the old road. And then consider the "anger" in appearance, once again missing. In any case, we have a cold and distant search for revenge, but none of passion or depth of the word "anger" spread. But what if we do not separate words - maybe Madas Nicolas Cage is behind the wheel? No, no joy can be found there either. It is efficient driving, perhaps even lethal driving, but nothing approaching driving angry. In fact, you can find a better example of "driving mad" in a movie called "Groundhog Day, and that even after the star encourages Groundhog not drive angry. So yes, Drive Angry, that's right nightmare of the city the first time.
Angry Drive is in the unfortunate position of having no real reason to exist, terrible dialogue, no plot to speak, and the relatively poor effects. The good news? Less than two hours, the soundtrack is abysmal, and there are a lot of laughs. However, if care professionals can try to make a movie so terrible I do not see any reason why that can not be rewarded with only our contempt and derision.
Review: I Am Number Four
An enjoyable romp.
It makes perfect sense that a film produced by Michael Bay, opens with a shot around the world. Then, in the pan, closer, closer, until finally we are in a hut in the rainforest. Two men are clearly in hiding, on the run, each evening comfortably in his hammock, trying to get some sleep. But wait! A noise at the door - if that may be going over them in such a remote place? Mogadorians! What is a Mogadorian? It's a bad guy! Oh, no, they pursue one of the "good" guys! But who are these "good" guys?
That's basically the plot of I'm the number four, the story of the "good" kids are sequentially persecuted and killed by Mogadorians. There are nine (total) quasi-heroes, Loriens call, and each is protected by something like a bodyguard or mentor. To give away more of the plot would be a disservice, so let's call it a "thriller", say the hunters and the prey, and break down who does what in the film.
Am I Number four is a thriller that moves in February, and a film that desperately cries out for a sequel. It is not perfect, and there are some random excerpts seem to be a function of addressing a history as long, but overall the film works and is entertaining routine. The young actors bring the story prominently on their shoulders and concepts presented are convincing. Perhaps the recent history of February as a movie "dump" be overly generous to me, but I I'm the number four was a pleasant romp.
Review: Unknown
A mundane action vehicle.
Well, yes, eventually becomes known the kind of movie in which an amnesiac tough guy tells an enemy, "I forget everything. I remember how to kill a hole **." What is a pity, because for a while is not that kind of movie at all.
The psychological thriller, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (orphans), Liam Neeson stars as an American botanist named Martin Harris - or "Doctor Martin Harris," as he continues to stand out. Dr. Martin Harris and his wife ice, Liz (January Jones) are in Berlin for a biotechnology conference when Martin was injured in an accident. He wakes in a hospital four days after finding no one in your life have no idea who he is.
But eventually the plot grows increasingly absurd, becoming an intriguing mystery, Memento-style action in a more mundane vehicle. The explanation for the situation of Martin's smart, how everything goes after receiving the explanation, not so much. (And the less said about white January Jones' performance of emotion, the better.) Neeson is always magnetic, however, even when it's just a repeat performance and delivery Taken cheese line, as is the time need to do here.
Review: Gnomeo and Juliet
A children's film that is reasonably cute.
As a result, it is not all that much gnome-related humor. In addition, the tenuous connection between the divine tragedy of Shakespeare and Gnomeo and Juliet lies solely on the word "Romeo" which sounds something like the word "Gnome". We assume that if the bard had named her playRichard and Juliet, then Elton John has never been involved and fully exploited the genre and comedy gnome would be gone forever dormant, a holder of a game of strange words in the road not taken . Of course, that is neither here nor there, and we're basically left with a children's film that is reasonably nice. Douglas Adams might have called it "mostly harmless."
This updated version of Montagues and Capulets has been simplified for young people, but there are a lot of jokes for fans of Shakespeare. Two neighbors (who happen to hate each other) each have a huge garden filled with gnome. Gnomes on one side is called the red, the other group is known as the blues. So, is Crips vs Blood, gnome style! The gnomes are consistent with the logic of some principles, human beings are always hard to see them, are fragile, and lawnmowers race against each other. So far, so good.
So what's left? This does not reach high artistic levels of Pixar or Dreamworks standards Animation highly entertaining, although children under 10 should enjoy it. The 3-D is relatively useless, but that seems to be in the great tradition of 3-D in those days. Gnomeo and Juliet is a movie about finding love gnomes, rising above their differences, and Elton John. Not much to it, but it is completely absurd visual experience. As such, gnome if you want.
Review: Just Go With It
This movie is exactly what you think it's going to be.
Just Go With It wants to drag in a web of deception and hilarity, like writing with us, as it serves a tired gag after another without ever daring to do something useful. Simple demand Just Go With It not only becomes useful words of advice but also an easy excuse, and finally a desperate appeal.
Danny (Adam Sandler) is a successful plastic surgeon who is his assistant and long time friend Kathy (Jennifer Aniston) who pretends to be his ex-wife to cover up a lie, he says Palmer, a hot chick ( Brooklyn Decker) has fallen in love with. As things get more serious between Danny and Palmer, everything starts to spiral out of control when it suddenly seems that Danny and Katherine have children, and after a few more lies, everyone ends up in Hawaii trying to get to know each others. Over time, what was but a false relationship to help a friend begins to become something more, but Danny and Katherine recognize it for what it is?
Just go with it is almost two hours, and it is difficult to figure out why. The relationship between Decker and Danny Palmer Sandler is hasty and poorly developed to move us along the right in the thick of the confusion in Hawaii and around the world, except Palmer is a joke: trying to help old Danny win her heart. Palmer is well-intentioned, sweet and beautiful, but the growing feeling among Danny and Katherine are undeniable and, finally, the public is not sure where to commit. There is no real villain here, pretty people trying to break into the world. Which is not terrible weight, and it is not convincing, sure as hell should be fun. What is not.
This film is exactly what you think is going to be: entirely predictable, minimally fun, and pretty boring. If you're a big fan of anyone in the movie, go see it, but otherwise just wait and rent it.
Review: I Love You Phillip Morris
Review: Source Code
A high-energy, moderately intelligent thriller.
And for his next act, Duncan Jones - writer and director of the successful arthouse sci-fi of the Moon - shows the source code, another entertaining story with confidence identity-based anxiety. Source code is less introspective and more ambitious than the first film of Jones, but is more known and accessible in all the best ways.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Army pilot who wakes up after an accident in Afghanistan to be involved in a military experiment that allows the issue to see the final eight minutes of the life of a recently deceased person - to live, basically, as the person's final moments. What is the advantage of this? Besides being a fun thing to do, which theoretically could inhabit the mind of a murder victim and determine who killed him.
On its surface, is a source of high energy, moderately intelligent thriller about correcting the mistakes and forgiveness of the past. (To do this, Stevens has problems with his father to be resolved.) The movie could have deep background that could be decompressed with additional views ... but I suspect that there is an equal opportunity to all fall apart under scrutiny. When the Moon, Jones wrote, had a dazzling wit to it, the source code (written by Ben Ripley) is more accurate. Jones does not apply a lot of personality to the mind-bending ideas, and could use a little gussying up. It's fun to watch where you are going now, however.
Ranking Quentin Tarantino’s Films
6. Death ProofDeath Proof is a wickedly brilliant slice of tart, trash cinema, posing as one sort of film halfway through and later revealing itself to be something stronger. The great thing about Tarantino is his love of cinema and his love for his characters. Sure, he objectifies them, but he also manages to respect them enough to elevate his female characters above the exploitative archetypes they are portraying. I don’t want to make Death Proof more than it is but the fact remains it is a lot more than it should be. It’s a pleasurable little diversion from a major filmmaker that I’d normally call forgettable were it not for the memorable characters (particularly Tracie Thoms’ Kim and Rosario Dawson’s Abernathy) and one of the all-time greatest car chases (featuring the amazing, feline Zoe Bell).5. Jackie BrownThe prints of two distinct writers (Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard) are all over Jackie Brown and they mesh beautifully. Jackie Brown was quickly labeled a disappointment by critics but a sign of maturation from its fans. To me it’s just a really strong character-driven caper. Yes, this is the rare “hip” film about people well past their primes, but both Pam Grier and Robert Forster are terrific. Bridget Fonda is most surprising as a feisty surfer girl who has also seen better days.4. Reservoir DogsWhen I watched Reservoir Dogs on VHS many years ago I got that electric jolt, that excitement that I rarely feel these days (except maybe when Tarantino or the Coens are releasing a new movie). On the surface, it shouldn’t have been anything exceptional, but the dialogue was so funny and so fierce, the performances were so on point that I finished the movie, waited for the tape to rewind and started the movie all over again. If I’m a Tarantino addict, Reservoir Dogswas the first time I inhaled. I’ve been hooked ever since.3. Inglourious BasterdsI struggled with placing these top three but I do believe the following films are the absolute pinnacle when it comes to Tarantino’s craft and ability to entertain. I knew when the credits rolled in 2009 that I had seen the year’s best film. Nothing would beat it. Now I’m a pretty optimistic fellow. Cynical on the outside, optimistic on the inside. AndAvatar was my most highly-anticipated film of 2009. But I knew, nothing — not even another great James Cameron entertainment — was going to dethrone Basterds. It’s a circus film filled with freaks, lions, clowns and wonderful narrative acrobatics. And I loved how it blended different genres (the western, the World War II men-on-a-mission movie) and wrapped it all in a love letter to cinema. This is probably Tarantino’s best Brian De Palma and Leone imitation, as he is able to ratchet up tension better than ever before with at least two scenes that will go down as all-time classics (the brilliant, Leonesque opening and the masterfully put together confrontation in a bar basement). What I love about Tarantino’s movies is if you tell people what they’re about — and you actually listen to yourself — there’s no way they should work. That they also manage to blow almost every other film you’ve seen out of the water is a feat only a ringmaster of Tarantino’s caliber could pull off.2. Pulp FictionQuentin’s serving of three unconventional gangster stories was pretty much the greatest movie on the planet when I saw it in 1994, even after seeing Reservoir Dogs, I still hadn’t seen anything like it. Who were these characters? What universe did they live in? Where could I get Samuel L. Jackson’s hair? Pulp Fiction is yet another movie for cinema’s most faithful lovers by a self-described “movie geek” and it’s as potent a crime film today as it was seventeen years ago.1. Kill BillOf course I’m going to cheat and lump the two Kill Bill movies together because ultimately that’s why it’s number one: together they are the best action epic in the last twenty years this side of Lord of the Rings. Tarantino has been flirting with the western genre for a long time now, particularly in Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (and if rumors are correct, he will finally make due on his flirtations). There is a connection between the samurai film and the western and he exploits that bond in a hugely successful fashion here. The Bride is his Man With No Name, his Yojimbo, his Sanjuro, only she carries a very real emotional investment for the viewer (Oh yes, Uma Thurman should have been nominated for her work as The Bride). These movies are very aware of their own movieness. That isn’t the flaw, that is the fun. When The Bride’s (obviously model) airplane flies over a model city of Tokyo with model cars moving every so awkwardly, when she hops on a Kawasaki wearing Bruce Lee’s yellow track suit from Game of Death to the Green Hornet theme, we aren’t laughing Uma Thurman’s Bride off the screen, we are cheering her on because we are engaged in an experience with the filmmaker that I would argue is unmatched by any other experience with any other filmmaker today. When she calls out O-Ren Ishii for battle, when Budd looks into her eyes solemnly as she is being buried alive, these are real emotionally driven moments that the film somehow, some way earns through the mad absurdity of Tarantino’s vision. And he’s throwing a lot of vision your way.
Review: Battle: Los Angeles
Sheer nonsense at best and annoyingly pointless at its worst.
Everyone loves to hate in Los Angeles for being too big, too full of traffic, and too difficult to overcome. Well, those who hate, joy and delight in the prospect of Los Angeles being attacked, especially by invading nameless, faceless stranger in place of the very real threats that concern us. It is possible that no one likes to see Los Angeles destroyed more than the Lakers, and as highways collapsed and the main city center was burned down during the Battle: The Angelesthere was a general murmur of satisfaction in the crowd . There is nothing you can do about the traffic on a given day, but forces beyond their control were destroying everything, so there is something very cathartic about it.
As for plot goes, without giving too much away, if you've seen Independence Day, will have an idea of what is happening. When a large-scale attack against the world by an unknown group of alien invaders begins, a group of Marines stationed near Los Angeles should make your way to a police station to rescue civilians and find a safe route back before any arbitrary attack occurs. The usual cast of characters here is predictable: the young lieutenant's new wife and unborn child, the Navy planning her upcoming wedding, the boy's dead brother, the recruit virgin, and the grizzled sergeant who seek to leave the service, just to name a few. The few faces that will recognize Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan, and not much can be said of any of them in the form of action.
A rarity among many is the fact that Los Angeles is quite unrecognizable in the film, much of the action takes place in Santa Monica, which is quite indifferent, but no pictures of the Hollywood sign getting blown up or anything thereof. I guess the reason is that Los Angeles really is a lot like any other city consumed by urban sprawl - we have no Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower to distinguish and differentiate their place. Instead our exports are our ambassadors around the world: the beaches, good weather, TV shows, movies and movie stars. Ultimately meaningless and yet very pleasant in a strange way, Battle: Los Angeles is meaningless at best and nonsense at its worst annoying.
Review: Red Riding Hood
A dumb mess, stylish but ludicrous.
"Little Red Riding Hood," as many fairy tales, is a dark and gruesome history to be traumatizing to children more than they do. If a smart filmmaker wanted to emphasize that side of it, actually carry out the horror, maybe even a wolf into a werewolf, a gothic romance set the balance of the supernatural elements - well, that would be a good thing to do. Someone should do that.
Someone other than Catherine Hardwicke, I mean. This he did, called Little Red Riding Hood is a silly mess, stylish, but ridiculous. Paralyzed from the beginning of the script by David Leslie Johnson cheesy (orphans), Hardwicke makes things worse with a self-serious tone that is grossly at odds with the frivolity inherent in the material. For you see, this is more than a fantasy tale set in the Middle Ages in a small village near a dark forest. It is also a soap opera! With forbidden passions and love triangles and all! Hardwicke directed Twilight, you may recall, apparently would like to continue directing, again and again.
movie you want to feel like a romantic drama and a supernatural thriller, but it feels like it or not. What you probably needed was a vampire.
Review: Rango
Sharp, well-made, and interesting.
Range may well be one of the first animation films in recent years that it is difficult to place in all the best ways. A people in the western city of entertainment, with menacing bandits, intimidated, and plenty of sticks, is also long range, not at all easy to see, and noticeably strange. But that might be what it does well.
The basic plot is pretty simple: After a serious accident, a chameleon finds its way into a small city filled with all kinds of desert creatures and beset by drought and bandits. Through his bravado, range becomes sheriff and effectively to the height of his great speech in the face of big problems.
Johnny Depp voices range, and his voice is so chameleon-like character, but this should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with his career. Isla Fisher is charming if unrecognizable as beans, a local lizard trying to save his father's farm. Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, and Timothy Olyphant also appear, among others.
In one hour and 47 minutes, the film is long, but with rising ticket prices is good to feel that we got value for money. Range is strong and well made and interesting, but lacks the emotional resonance of a movie like How to Train Your Dragon. And that may well be my problem with it. I was expecting something easy and this film was a risk, took the opportunity to be ugly, being a bit long and complicated, and although it is fairly closely the conventions of the genre, is ultimately quite different from what we have seen in the past few years.
Review: The Adjustment Bureau
A solid concept, well executed.
I am pleased to report that The Adjustment Bureau, partTruman Show, part of the game, voltage characteristics along legitimate. Concept is also relatively high, since it is an adaptation of a short story by Philip K. Dick, Scanner Darkly to andTotal Recall, and Minority Report. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt carry most of burden, and do so with professionalism. A solid and well-executed concept that forces us to think a little? Win!
The themes of The Adjustment Bureau doubles. The most prominent is the idea that there is a master plan in place, controlled by a higher power, which sends agents to give form and shape reality as necessary. Your alarm did not go? It might be sending officers to be adjusted. Missing the bus? The world might be getting back on track. The major force behind all this is known by the agents as "President", and humans rarely aware of the President. Matt Damon, who plays a songressman up-and-coming candidate for senator in the great state of New York, made aware of the agents, and reveals his life from there. You can imagine what it would be disconcerting to look behind the curtain of a higher power, and Damon vacillates between disbelief and poverty. Compounding the problem is that agents of this "power" have decided not to follow up an acquaintance of the lady who just made (Emily Blunt), instead of telling him to forget it and let it go. Naturally, you can not emotionally fulfilling.
The second issue of The Adjustment Bureau is buried just below the surface, but it's there, and is the idea of the effect of a soulmate in motivation. Are those who yearn for most, it can not find happiness, they kept pushing people beyond all reason to achieve greatness? Is the disc comes from the will, and did not achieve, love? Damon is forced to deal with this idea in mind, since his political career is at stake, to a large extent determined by their romantic choices.
The most enjoyable aspect of the film is that it allows us, as groups, to discover and consider the organic world. Who are these mysterious and powerful agents? What the hell is the master plan? Damon should go with your heart or your intellect, especially given their chance against a force omniscient? The Office of adjustment has been thinking of all angles, and credit is a new breed of director George Nolfi that never leaves the accelerator pedal. The momentum of the film argues, and the lack of 3-D effects, and other gimmicky The Adjustment Bureau gives a seriousness lacking in most versions of March.
Review: Drive Angry
Feels like the very reason we can't have nice things.
Angry Drive is all jagged edges and broken promises. Take the title as a descriptor of simple, easy to implement. Except they are not driving all the tricks that many, in any case, this is a great movie road trip, with more shots Charger Chevelle SS 454 69 or just moseying down the old road. And then consider the "anger" in appearance, once again missing. In any case, we have a cold and distant search for revenge, but none of passion or depth of the word "anger" spread. But what if we do not separate words - maybe Madas Nicolas Cage is behind the wheel? No, no joy can be found there either. It is efficient driving, perhaps even lethal driving, but nothing approaching driving angry. In fact, you can find a better example of "driving mad" in a movie called "Groundhog Day, and that even after the star encourages Groundhog not drive angry. So yes, Drive Angry, that's right nightmare of the city the first time.
Angry Drive is in the unfortunate position of having no real reason to exist, terrible dialogue, no plot to speak, and the relatively poor effects. The good news? Less than two hours, the soundtrack is abysmal, and there are a lot of laughs. However, if care professionals can try to make a movie so terrible I do not see any reason why that can not be rewarded with only our contempt and derision.
Review: I Am Number Four
An enjoyable romp.
It makes perfect sense that a film produced by Michael Bay, opens with a shot around the world. Then, in the pan, closer, closer, until finally we are in a hut in the rainforest. Two men are clearly in hiding, on the run, each evening comfortably in his hammock, trying to get some sleep. But wait! A noise at the door - if that may be going over them in such a remote place? Mogadorians! What is a Mogadorian? It's a bad guy! Oh, no, they pursue one of the "good" guys! But who are these "good" guys?
That's basically the plot of I'm the number four, the story of the "good" kids are sequentially persecuted and killed by Mogadorians. There are nine (total) quasi-heroes, Loriens call, and each is protected by something like a bodyguard or mentor. To give away more of the plot would be a disservice, so let's call it a "thriller", say the hunters and the prey, and break down who does what in the film.
Am I Number four is a thriller that moves in February, and a film that desperately cries out for a sequel. It is not perfect, and there are some random excerpts seem to be a function of addressing a history as long, but overall the film works and is entertaining routine. The young actors bring the story prominently on their shoulders and concepts presented are convincing. Perhaps the recent history of February as a movie "dump" be overly generous to me, but I I'm the number four was a pleasant romp.
Review: Unknown
A mundane action vehicle.
Well, yes, eventually becomes known the kind of movie in which an amnesiac tough guy tells an enemy, "I forget everything. I remember how to kill a hole **." What is a pity, because for a while is not that kind of movie at all.
The psychological thriller, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (orphans), Liam Neeson stars as an American botanist named Martin Harris - or "Doctor Martin Harris," as he continues to stand out. Dr. Martin Harris and his wife ice, Liz (January Jones) are in Berlin for a biotechnology conference when Martin was injured in an accident. He wakes in a hospital four days after finding no one in your life have no idea who he is.
But eventually the plot grows increasingly absurd, becoming an intriguing mystery, Memento-style action in a more mundane vehicle. The explanation for the situation of Martin's smart, how everything goes after receiving the explanation, not so much. (And the less said about white January Jones' performance of emotion, the better.) Neeson is always magnetic, however, even when it's just a repeat performance and delivery Taken cheese line, as is the time need to do here.
Review: Gnomeo and Juliet
Review: Source Code
A high-energy, moderately intelligent thriller.
And for his next act, Duncan Jones - writer and director of the successful arthouse sci-fi of the Moon - shows the source code, another entertaining story with confidence identity-based anxiety. Source code is less introspective and more ambitious than the first film of Jones, but is more known and accessible in all the best ways.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Army pilot who wakes up after an accident in Afghanistan to be involved in a military experiment that allows the issue to see the final eight minutes of the life of a recently deceased person - to live, basically, as the person's final moments. What is the advantage of this? Besides being a fun thing to do, which theoretically could inhabit the mind of a murder victim and determine who killed him.
On its surface, is a source of high energy, moderately intelligent thriller about correcting the mistakes and forgiveness of the past. (To do this, Stevens has problems with his father to be resolved.) The movie could have deep background that could be decompressed with additional views ... but I suspect that there is an equal opportunity to all fall apart under scrutiny. When the Moon, Jones wrote, had a dazzling wit to it, the source code (written by Ben Ripley) is more accurate. Jones does not apply a lot of personality to the mind-bending ideas, and could use a little gussying up. It's fun to watch where you are going now, however.
Ranking Quentin Tarantino’s Films
6. Death ProofDeath Proof is a wickedly brilliant slice of tart, trash cinema, posing as one sort of film halfway through and later revealing itself to be something stronger. The great thing about Tarantino is his love of cinema and his love for his characters. Sure, he objectifies them, but he also manages to respect them enough to elevate his female characters above the exploitative archetypes they are portraying. I don’t want to make Death Proof more than it is but the fact remains it is a lot more than it should be. It’s a pleasurable little diversion from a major filmmaker that I’d normally call forgettable were it not for the memorable characters (particularly Tracie Thoms’ Kim and Rosario Dawson’s Abernathy) and one of the all-time greatest car chases (featuring the amazing, feline Zoe Bell).5. Jackie BrownThe prints of two distinct writers (Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard) are all over Jackie Brown and they mesh beautifully. Jackie Brown was quickly labeled a disappointment by critics but a sign of maturation from its fans. To me it’s just a really strong character-driven caper. Yes, this is the rare “hip” film about people well past their primes, but both Pam Grier and Robert Forster are terrific. Bridget Fonda is most surprising as a feisty surfer girl who has also seen better days.4. Reservoir DogsWhen I watched Reservoir Dogs on VHS many years ago I got that electric jolt, that excitement that I rarely feel these days (except maybe when Tarantino or the Coens are releasing a new movie). On the surface, it shouldn’t have been anything exceptional, but the dialogue was so funny and so fierce, the performances were so on point that I finished the movie, waited for the tape to rewind and started the movie all over again. If I’m a Tarantino addict, Reservoir Dogswas the first time I inhaled. I’ve been hooked ever since.3. Inglourious BasterdsI struggled with placing these top three but I do believe the following films are the absolute pinnacle when it comes to Tarantino’s craft and ability to entertain. I knew when the credits rolled in 2009 that I had seen the year’s best film. Nothing would beat it. Now I’m a pretty optimistic fellow. Cynical on the outside, optimistic on the inside. AndAvatar was my most highly-anticipated film of 2009. But I knew, nothing — not even another great James Cameron entertainment — was going to dethrone Basterds. It’s a circus film filled with freaks, lions, clowns and wonderful narrative acrobatics. And I loved how it blended different genres (the western, the World War II men-on-a-mission movie) and wrapped it all in a love letter to cinema. This is probably Tarantino’s best Brian De Palma and Leone imitation, as he is able to ratchet up tension better than ever before with at least two scenes that will go down as all-time classics (the brilliant, Leonesque opening and the masterfully put together confrontation in a bar basement). What I love about Tarantino’s movies is if you tell people what they’re about — and you actually listen to yourself — there’s no way they should work. That they also manage to blow almost every other film you’ve seen out of the water is a feat only a ringmaster of Tarantino’s caliber could pull off.2. Pulp FictionQuentin’s serving of three unconventional gangster stories was pretty much the greatest movie on the planet when I saw it in 1994, even after seeing Reservoir Dogs, I still hadn’t seen anything like it. Who were these characters? What universe did they live in? Where could I get Samuel L. Jackson’s hair? Pulp Fiction is yet another movie for cinema’s most faithful lovers by a self-described “movie geek” and it’s as potent a crime film today as it was seventeen years ago.1. Kill BillOf course I’m going to cheat and lump the two Kill Bill movies together because ultimately that’s why it’s number one: together they are the best action epic in the last twenty years this side of Lord of the Rings. Tarantino has been flirting with the western genre for a long time now, particularly in Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (and if rumors are correct, he will finally make due on his flirtations). There is a connection between the samurai film and the western and he exploits that bond in a hugely successful fashion here. The Bride is his Man With No Name, his Yojimbo, his Sanjuro, only she carries a very real emotional investment for the viewer (Oh yes, Uma Thurman should have been nominated for her work as The Bride). These movies are very aware of their own movieness. That isn’t the flaw, that is the fun. When The Bride’s (obviously model) airplane flies over a model city of Tokyo with model cars moving every so awkwardly, when she hops on a Kawasaki wearing Bruce Lee’s yellow track suit from Game of Death to the Green Hornet theme, we aren’t laughing Uma Thurman’s Bride off the screen, we are cheering her on because we are engaged in an experience with the filmmaker that I would argue is unmatched by any other experience with any other filmmaker today. When she calls out O-Ren Ishii for battle, when Budd looks into her eyes solemnly as she is being buried alive, these are real emotionally driven moments that the film somehow, some way earns through the mad absurdity of Tarantino’s vision. And he’s throwing a lot of vision your way.
Review: Battle: Los Angeles
Sheer nonsense at best and annoyingly pointless at its worst.
Everyone loves to hate in Los Angeles for being too big, too full of traffic, and too difficult to overcome. Well, those who hate, joy and delight in the prospect of Los Angeles being attacked, especially by invading nameless, faceless stranger in place of the very real threats that concern us. It is possible that no one likes to see Los Angeles destroyed more than the Lakers, and as highways collapsed and the main city center was burned down during the Battle: The Angelesthere was a general murmur of satisfaction in the crowd . There is nothing you can do about the traffic on a given day, but forces beyond their control were destroying everything, so there is something very cathartic about it.
As for plot goes, without giving too much away, if you've seen Independence Day, will have an idea of what is happening. When a large-scale attack against the world by an unknown group of alien invaders begins, a group of Marines stationed near Los Angeles should make your way to a police station to rescue civilians and find a safe route back before any arbitrary attack occurs. The usual cast of characters here is predictable: the young lieutenant's new wife and unborn child, the Navy planning her upcoming wedding, the boy's dead brother, the recruit virgin, and the grizzled sergeant who seek to leave the service, just to name a few. The few faces that will recognize Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan, and not much can be said of any of them in the form of action.
A rarity among many is the fact that Los Angeles is quite unrecognizable in the film, much of the action takes place in Santa Monica, which is quite indifferent, but no pictures of the Hollywood sign getting blown up or anything thereof. I guess the reason is that Los Angeles really is a lot like any other city consumed by urban sprawl - we have no Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower to distinguish and differentiate their place. Instead our exports are our ambassadors around the world: the beaches, good weather, TV shows, movies and movie stars. Ultimately meaningless and yet very pleasant in a strange way, Battle: Los Angeles is meaningless at best and nonsense at its worst annoying.
Review: Red Riding Hood
A dumb mess, stylish but ludicrous.
"Little Red Riding Hood," as many fairy tales, is a dark and gruesome history to be traumatizing to children more than they do. If a smart filmmaker wanted to emphasize that side of it, actually carry out the horror, maybe even a wolf into a werewolf, a gothic romance set the balance of the supernatural elements - well, that would be a good thing to do. Someone should do that.
Someone other than Catherine Hardwicke, I mean. This he did, called Little Red Riding Hood is a silly mess, stylish, but ridiculous. Paralyzed from the beginning of the script by David Leslie Johnson cheesy (orphans), Hardwicke makes things worse with a self-serious tone that is grossly at odds with the frivolity inherent in the material. For you see, this is more than a fantasy tale set in the Middle Ages in a small village near a dark forest. It is also a soap opera! With forbidden passions and love triangles and all! Hardwicke directed Twilight, you may recall, apparently would like to continue directing, again and again.
movie you want to feel like a romantic drama and a supernatural thriller, but it feels like it or not. What you probably needed was a vampire.
Review: Rango
Sharp, well-made, and interesting.
Range may well be one of the first animation films in recent years that it is difficult to place in all the best ways. A people in the western city of entertainment, with menacing bandits, intimidated, and plenty of sticks, is also long range, not at all easy to see, and noticeably strange. But that might be what it does well.
The basic plot is pretty simple: After a serious accident, a chameleon finds its way into a small city filled with all kinds of desert creatures and beset by drought and bandits. Through his bravado, range becomes sheriff and effectively to the height of his great speech in the face of big problems.
Johnny Depp voices range, and his voice is so chameleon-like character, but this should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with his career. Isla Fisher is charming if unrecognizable as beans, a local lizard trying to save his father's farm. Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, and Timothy Olyphant also appear, among others.
In one hour and 47 minutes, the film is long, but with rising ticket prices is good to feel that we got value for money. Range is strong and well made and interesting, but lacks the emotional resonance of a movie like How to Train Your Dragon. And that may well be my problem with it. I was expecting something easy and this film was a risk, took the opportunity to be ugly, being a bit long and complicated, and although it is fairly closely the conventions of the genre, is ultimately quite different from what we have seen in the past few years.
Review: The Adjustment Bureau
A solid concept, well executed.
I am pleased to report that The Adjustment Bureau, partTruman Show, part of the game, voltage characteristics along legitimate. Concept is also relatively high, since it is an adaptation of a short story by Philip K. Dick, Scanner Darkly to andTotal Recall, and Minority Report. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt carry most of burden, and do so with professionalism. A solid and well-executed concept that forces us to think a little? Win!
The themes of The Adjustment Bureau doubles. The most prominent is the idea that there is a master plan in place, controlled by a higher power, which sends agents to give form and shape reality as necessary. Your alarm did not go? It might be sending officers to be adjusted. Missing the bus? The world might be getting back on track. The major force behind all this is known by the agents as "President", and humans rarely aware of the President. Matt Damon, who plays a songressman up-and-coming candidate for senator in the great state of New York, made aware of the agents, and reveals his life from there. You can imagine what it would be disconcerting to look behind the curtain of a higher power, and Damon vacillates between disbelief and poverty. Compounding the problem is that agents of this "power" have decided not to follow up an acquaintance of the lady who just made (Emily Blunt), instead of telling him to forget it and let it go. Naturally, you can not emotionally fulfilling.
The second issue of The Adjustment Bureau is buried just below the surface, but it's there, and is the idea of the effect of a soulmate in motivation. Are those who yearn for most, it can not find happiness, they kept pushing people beyond all reason to achieve greatness? Is the disc comes from the will, and did not achieve, love? Damon is forced to deal with this idea in mind, since his political career is at stake, to a large extent determined by their romantic choices.
The most enjoyable aspect of the film is that it allows us, as groups, to discover and consider the organic world. Who are these mysterious and powerful agents? What the hell is the master plan? Damon should go with your heart or your intellect, especially given their chance against a force omniscient? The Office of adjustment has been thinking of all angles, and credit is a new breed of director George Nolfi that never leaves the accelerator pedal. The momentum of the film argues, and the lack of 3-D effects, and other gimmicky The Adjustment Bureau gives a seriousness lacking in most versions of March.
Review: Drive Angry
Feels like the very reason we can't have nice things.
Angry Drive is all jagged edges and broken promises. Take the title as a descriptor of simple, easy to implement. Except they are not driving all the tricks that many, in any case, this is a great movie road trip, with more shots Charger Chevelle SS 454 69 or just moseying down the old road. And then consider the "anger" in appearance, once again missing. In any case, we have a cold and distant search for revenge, but none of passion or depth of the word "anger" spread. But what if we do not separate words - maybe Madas Nicolas Cage is behind the wheel? No, no joy can be found there either. It is efficient driving, perhaps even lethal driving, but nothing approaching driving angry. In fact, you can find a better example of "driving mad" in a movie called "Groundhog Day, and that even after the star encourages Groundhog not drive angry. So yes, Drive Angry, that's right nightmare of the city the first time.
Angry Drive is in the unfortunate position of having no real reason to exist, terrible dialogue, no plot to speak, and the relatively poor effects. The good news? Less than two hours, the soundtrack is abysmal, and there are a lot of laughs. However, if care professionals can try to make a movie so terrible I do not see any reason why that can not be rewarded with only our contempt and derision.
Review: I Am Number Four
Review: Source Code
A high-energy, moderately intelligent thriller.
And for his next act, Duncan Jones - writer and director of the successful arthouse sci-fi of the Moon - shows the source code, another entertaining story with confidence identity-based anxiety. Source code is less introspective and more ambitious than the first film of Jones, but is more known and accessible in all the best ways.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Army pilot who wakes up after an accident in Afghanistan to be involved in a military experiment that allows the issue to see the final eight minutes of the life of a recently deceased person - to live, basically, as the person's final moments. What is the advantage of this? Besides being a fun thing to do, which theoretically could inhabit the mind of a murder victim and determine who killed him.
On its surface, is a source of high energy, moderately intelligent thriller about correcting the mistakes and forgiveness of the past. (To do this, Stevens has problems with his father to be resolved.) The movie could have deep background that could be decompressed with additional views ... but I suspect that there is an equal opportunity to all fall apart under scrutiny. When the Moon, Jones wrote, had a dazzling wit to it, the source code (written by Ben Ripley) is more accurate. Jones does not apply a lot of personality to the mind-bending ideas, and could use a little gussying up. It's fun to watch where you are going now, however.
Ranking Quentin Tarantino’s Films
6. Death ProofDeath Proof is a wickedly brilliant slice of tart, trash cinema, posing as one sort of film halfway through and later revealing itself to be something stronger. The great thing about Tarantino is his love of cinema and his love for his characters. Sure, he objectifies them, but he also manages to respect them enough to elevate his female characters above the exploitative archetypes they are portraying. I don’t want to make Death Proof more than it is but the fact remains it is a lot more than it should be. It’s a pleasurable little diversion from a major filmmaker that I’d normally call forgettable were it not for the memorable characters (particularly Tracie Thoms’ Kim and Rosario Dawson’s Abernathy) and one of the all-time greatest car chases (featuring the amazing, feline Zoe Bell).5. Jackie BrownThe prints of two distinct writers (Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard) are all over Jackie Brown and they mesh beautifully. Jackie Brown was quickly labeled a disappointment by critics but a sign of maturation from its fans. To me it’s just a really strong character-driven caper. Yes, this is the rare “hip” film about people well past their primes, but both Pam Grier and Robert Forster are terrific. Bridget Fonda is most surprising as a feisty surfer girl who has also seen better days.4. Reservoir DogsWhen I watched Reservoir Dogs on VHS many years ago I got that electric jolt, that excitement that I rarely feel these days (except maybe when Tarantino or the Coens are releasing a new movie). On the surface, it shouldn’t have been anything exceptional, but the dialogue was so funny and so fierce, the performances were so on point that I finished the movie, waited for the tape to rewind and started the movie all over again. If I’m a Tarantino addict, Reservoir Dogswas the first time I inhaled. I’ve been hooked ever since.3. Inglourious BasterdsI struggled with placing these top three but I do believe the following films are the absolute pinnacle when it comes to Tarantino’s craft and ability to entertain. I knew when the credits rolled in 2009 that I had seen the year’s best film. Nothing would beat it. Now I’m a pretty optimistic fellow. Cynical on the outside, optimistic on the inside. AndAvatar was my most highly-anticipated film of 2009. But I knew, nothing — not even another great James Cameron entertainment — was going to dethrone Basterds. It’s a circus film filled with freaks, lions, clowns and wonderful narrative acrobatics. And I loved how it blended different genres (the western, the World War II men-on-a-mission movie) and wrapped it all in a love letter to cinema. This is probably Tarantino’s best Brian De Palma and Leone imitation, as he is able to ratchet up tension better than ever before with at least two scenes that will go down as all-time classics (the brilliant, Leonesque opening and the masterfully put together confrontation in a bar basement). What I love about Tarantino’s movies is if you tell people what they’re about — and you actually listen to yourself — there’s no way they should work. That they also manage to blow almost every other film you’ve seen out of the water is a feat only a ringmaster of Tarantino’s caliber could pull off.2. Pulp FictionQuentin’s serving of three unconventional gangster stories was pretty much the greatest movie on the planet when I saw it in 1994, even after seeing Reservoir Dogs, I still hadn’t seen anything like it. Who were these characters? What universe did they live in? Where could I get Samuel L. Jackson’s hair? Pulp Fiction is yet another movie for cinema’s most faithful lovers by a self-described “movie geek” and it’s as potent a crime film today as it was seventeen years ago.1. Kill BillOf course I’m going to cheat and lump the two Kill Bill movies together because ultimately that’s why it’s number one: together they are the best action epic in the last twenty years this side of Lord of the Rings. Tarantino has been flirting with the western genre for a long time now, particularly in Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (and if rumors are correct, he will finally make due on his flirtations). There is a connection between the samurai film and the western and he exploits that bond in a hugely successful fashion here. The Bride is his Man With No Name, his Yojimbo, his Sanjuro, only she carries a very real emotional investment for the viewer (Oh yes, Uma Thurman should have been nominated for her work as The Bride). These movies are very aware of their own movieness. That isn’t the flaw, that is the fun. When The Bride’s (obviously model) airplane flies over a model city of Tokyo with model cars moving every so awkwardly, when she hops on a Kawasaki wearing Bruce Lee’s yellow track suit from Game of Death to the Green Hornet theme, we aren’t laughing Uma Thurman’s Bride off the screen, we are cheering her on because we are engaged in an experience with the filmmaker that I would argue is unmatched by any other experience with any other filmmaker today. When she calls out O-Ren Ishii for battle, when Budd looks into her eyes solemnly as she is being buried alive, these are real emotionally driven moments that the film somehow, some way earns through the mad absurdity of Tarantino’s vision. And he’s throwing a lot of vision your way.
Review: Battle: Los Angeles
Sheer nonsense at best and annoyingly pointless at its worst.
Everyone loves to hate in Los Angeles for being too big, too full of traffic, and too difficult to overcome. Well, those who hate, joy and delight in the prospect of Los Angeles being attacked, especially by invading nameless, faceless stranger in place of the very real threats that concern us. It is possible that no one likes to see Los Angeles destroyed more than the Lakers, and as highways collapsed and the main city center was burned down during the Battle: The Angelesthere was a general murmur of satisfaction in the crowd . There is nothing you can do about the traffic on a given day, but forces beyond their control were destroying everything, so there is something very cathartic about it.
As for plot goes, without giving too much away, if you've seen Independence Day, will have an idea of what is happening. When a large-scale attack against the world by an unknown group of alien invaders begins, a group of Marines stationed near Los Angeles should make your way to a police station to rescue civilians and find a safe route back before any arbitrary attack occurs. The usual cast of characters here is predictable: the young lieutenant's new wife and unborn child, the Navy planning her upcoming wedding, the boy's dead brother, the recruit virgin, and the grizzled sergeant who seek to leave the service, just to name a few. The few faces that will recognize Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan, and not much can be said of any of them in the form of action.
A rarity among many is the fact that Los Angeles is quite unrecognizable in the film, much of the action takes place in Santa Monica, which is quite indifferent, but no pictures of the Hollywood sign getting blown up or anything thereof. I guess the reason is that Los Angeles really is a lot like any other city consumed by urban sprawl - we have no Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower to distinguish and differentiate their place. Instead our exports are our ambassadors around the world: the beaches, good weather, TV shows, movies and movie stars. Ultimately meaningless and yet very pleasant in a strange way, Battle: Los Angeles is meaningless at best and nonsense at its worst annoying.
Review: Red Riding Hood
A dumb mess, stylish but ludicrous.
"Little Red Riding Hood," as many fairy tales, is a dark and gruesome history to be traumatizing to children more than they do. If a smart filmmaker wanted to emphasize that side of it, actually carry out the horror, maybe even a wolf into a werewolf, a gothic romance set the balance of the supernatural elements - well, that would be a good thing to do. Someone should do that.
Someone other than Catherine Hardwicke, I mean. This he did, called Little Red Riding Hood is a silly mess, stylish, but ridiculous. Paralyzed from the beginning of the script by David Leslie Johnson cheesy (orphans), Hardwicke makes things worse with a self-serious tone that is grossly at odds with the frivolity inherent in the material. For you see, this is more than a fantasy tale set in the Middle Ages in a small village near a dark forest. It is also a soap opera! With forbidden passions and love triangles and all! Hardwicke directed Twilight, you may recall, apparently would like to continue directing, again and again.
movie you want to feel like a romantic drama and a supernatural thriller, but it feels like it or not. What you probably needed was a vampire.
Review: Rango
Sharp, well-made, and interesting.
Range may well be one of the first animation films in recent years that it is difficult to place in all the best ways. A people in the western city of entertainment, with menacing bandits, intimidated, and plenty of sticks, is also long range, not at all easy to see, and noticeably strange. But that might be what it does well.
The basic plot is pretty simple: After a serious accident, a chameleon finds its way into a small city filled with all kinds of desert creatures and beset by drought and bandits. Through his bravado, range becomes sheriff and effectively to the height of his great speech in the face of big problems.
Johnny Depp voices range, and his voice is so chameleon-like character, but this should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with his career. Isla Fisher is charming if unrecognizable as beans, a local lizard trying to save his father's farm. Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, and Timothy Olyphant also appear, among others.
In one hour and 47 minutes, the film is long, but with rising ticket prices is good to feel that we got value for money. Range is strong and well made and interesting, but lacks the emotional resonance of a movie like How to Train Your Dragon. And that may well be my problem with it. I was expecting something easy and this film was a risk, took the opportunity to be ugly, being a bit long and complicated, and although it is fairly closely the conventions of the genre, is ultimately quite different from what we have seen in the past few years.
Review: The Adjustment Bureau
Review: Source Code
A high-energy, moderately intelligent thriller.
And for his next act, Duncan Jones - writer and director of the successful arthouse sci-fi of the Moon - shows the source code, another entertaining story with confidence identity-based anxiety. Source code is less introspective and more ambitious than the first film of Jones, but is more known and accessible in all the best ways.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Army pilot who wakes up after an accident in Afghanistan to be involved in a military experiment that allows the issue to see the final eight minutes of the life of a recently deceased person - to live, basically, as the person's final moments. What is the advantage of this? Besides being a fun thing to do, which theoretically could inhabit the mind of a murder victim and determine who killed him.
On its surface, is a source of high energy, moderately intelligent thriller about correcting the mistakes and forgiveness of the past. (To do this, Stevens has problems with his father to be resolved.) The movie could have deep background that could be decompressed with additional views ... but I suspect that there is an equal opportunity to all fall apart under scrutiny. When the Moon, Jones wrote, had a dazzling wit to it, the source code (written by Ben Ripley) is more accurate. Jones does not apply a lot of personality to the mind-bending ideas, and could use a little gussying up. It's fun to watch where you are going now, however.
Ranking Quentin Tarantino’s Films
6. Death ProofDeath Proof is a wickedly brilliant slice of tart, trash cinema, posing as one sort of film halfway through and later revealing itself to be something stronger. The great thing about Tarantino is his love of cinema and his love for his characters. Sure, he objectifies them, but he also manages to respect them enough to elevate his female characters above the exploitative archetypes they are portraying. I don’t want to make Death Proof more than it is but the fact remains it is a lot more than it should be. It’s a pleasurable little diversion from a major filmmaker that I’d normally call forgettable were it not for the memorable characters (particularly Tracie Thoms’ Kim and Rosario Dawson’s Abernathy) and one of the all-time greatest car chases (featuring the amazing, feline Zoe Bell).5. Jackie BrownThe prints of two distinct writers (Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard) are all over Jackie Brown and they mesh beautifully. Jackie Brown was quickly labeled a disappointment by critics but a sign of maturation from its fans. To me it’s just a really strong character-driven caper. Yes, this is the rare “hip” film about people well past their primes, but both Pam Grier and Robert Forster are terrific. Bridget Fonda is most surprising as a feisty surfer girl who has also seen better days.4. Reservoir DogsWhen I watched Reservoir Dogs on VHS many years ago I got that electric jolt, that excitement that I rarely feel these days (except maybe when Tarantino or the Coens are releasing a new movie). On the surface, it shouldn’t have been anything exceptional, but the dialogue was so funny and so fierce, the performances were so on point that I finished the movie, waited for the tape to rewind and started the movie all over again. If I’m a Tarantino addict, Reservoir Dogswas the first time I inhaled. I’ve been hooked ever since.3. Inglourious BasterdsI struggled with placing these top three but I do believe the following films are the absolute pinnacle when it comes to Tarantino’s craft and ability to entertain. I knew when the credits rolled in 2009 that I had seen the year’s best film. Nothing would beat it. Now I’m a pretty optimistic fellow. Cynical on the outside, optimistic on the inside. AndAvatar was my most highly-anticipated film of 2009. But I knew, nothing — not even another great James Cameron entertainment — was going to dethrone Basterds. It’s a circus film filled with freaks, lions, clowns and wonderful narrative acrobatics. And I loved how it blended different genres (the western, the World War II men-on-a-mission movie) and wrapped it all in a love letter to cinema. This is probably Tarantino’s best Brian De Palma and Leone imitation, as he is able to ratchet up tension better than ever before with at least two scenes that will go down as all-time classics (the brilliant, Leonesque opening and the masterfully put together confrontation in a bar basement). What I love about Tarantino’s movies is if you tell people what they’re about — and you actually listen to yourself — there’s no way they should work. That they also manage to blow almost every other film you’ve seen out of the water is a feat only a ringmaster of Tarantino’s caliber could pull off.2. Pulp FictionQuentin’s serving of three unconventional gangster stories was pretty much the greatest movie on the planet when I saw it in 1994, even after seeing Reservoir Dogs, I still hadn’t seen anything like it. Who were these characters? What universe did they live in? Where could I get Samuel L. Jackson’s hair? Pulp Fiction is yet another movie for cinema’s most faithful lovers by a self-described “movie geek” and it’s as potent a crime film today as it was seventeen years ago.1. Kill BillOf course I’m going to cheat and lump the two Kill Bill movies together because ultimately that’s why it’s number one: together they are the best action epic in the last twenty years this side of Lord of the Rings. Tarantino has been flirting with the western genre for a long time now, particularly in Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (and if rumors are correct, he will finally make due on his flirtations). There is a connection between the samurai film and the western and he exploits that bond in a hugely successful fashion here. The Bride is his Man With No Name, his Yojimbo, his Sanjuro, only she carries a very real emotional investment for the viewer (Oh yes, Uma Thurman should have been nominated for her work as The Bride). These movies are very aware of their own movieness. That isn’t the flaw, that is the fun. When The Bride’s (obviously model) airplane flies over a model city of Tokyo with model cars moving every so awkwardly, when she hops on a Kawasaki wearing Bruce Lee’s yellow track suit from Game of Death to the Green Hornet theme, we aren’t laughing Uma Thurman’s Bride off the screen, we are cheering her on because we are engaged in an experience with the filmmaker that I would argue is unmatched by any other experience with any other filmmaker today. When she calls out O-Ren Ishii for battle, when Budd looks into her eyes solemnly as she is being buried alive, these are real emotionally driven moments that the film somehow, some way earns through the mad absurdity of Tarantino’s vision. And he’s throwing a lot of vision your way.
Review: Battle: Los Angeles
Sheer nonsense at best and annoyingly pointless at its worst.
Everyone loves to hate in Los Angeles for being too big, too full of traffic, and too difficult to overcome. Well, those who hate, joy and delight in the prospect of Los Angeles being attacked, especially by invading nameless, faceless stranger in place of the very real threats that concern us. It is possible that no one likes to see Los Angeles destroyed more than the Lakers, and as highways collapsed and the main city center was burned down during the Battle: The Angelesthere was a general murmur of satisfaction in the crowd . There is nothing you can do about the traffic on a given day, but forces beyond their control were destroying everything, so there is something very cathartic about it.
As for plot goes, without giving too much away, if you've seen Independence Day, will have an idea of what is happening. When a large-scale attack against the world by an unknown group of alien invaders begins, a group of Marines stationed near Los Angeles should make your way to a police station to rescue civilians and find a safe route back before any arbitrary attack occurs. The usual cast of characters here is predictable: the young lieutenant's new wife and unborn child, the Navy planning her upcoming wedding, the boy's dead brother, the recruit virgin, and the grizzled sergeant who seek to leave the service, just to name a few. The few faces that will recognize Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan, and not much can be said of any of them in the form of action.
A rarity among many is the fact that Los Angeles is quite unrecognizable in the film, much of the action takes place in Santa Monica, which is quite indifferent, but no pictures of the Hollywood sign getting blown up or anything thereof. I guess the reason is that Los Angeles really is a lot like any other city consumed by urban sprawl - we have no Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower to distinguish and differentiate their place. Instead our exports are our ambassadors around the world: the beaches, good weather, TV shows, movies and movie stars. Ultimately meaningless and yet very pleasant in a strange way, Battle: Los Angeles is meaningless at best and nonsense at its worst annoying.
Review: Red Riding Hood
Review: Source Code
A high-energy, moderately intelligent thriller.
And for his next act, Duncan Jones - writer and director of the successful arthouse sci-fi of the Moon - shows the source code, another entertaining story with confidence identity-based anxiety. Source code is less introspective and more ambitious than the first film of Jones, but is more known and accessible in all the best ways.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Army pilot who wakes up after an accident in Afghanistan to be involved in a military experiment that allows the issue to see the final eight minutes of the life of a recently deceased person - to live, basically, as the person's final moments. What is the advantage of this? Besides being a fun thing to do, which theoretically could inhabit the mind of a murder victim and determine who killed him.
On its surface, is a source of high energy, moderately intelligent thriller about correcting the mistakes and forgiveness of the past. (To do this, Stevens has problems with his father to be resolved.) The movie could have deep background that could be decompressed with additional views ... but I suspect that there is an equal opportunity to all fall apart under scrutiny. When the Moon, Jones wrote, had a dazzling wit to it, the source code (written by Ben Ripley) is more accurate. Jones does not apply a lot of personality to the mind-bending ideas, and could use a little gussying up. It's fun to watch where you are going now, however.
Ranking Quentin Tarantino’s Films
Review: Source Code
A high-energy, moderately intelligent thriller.
And for his next act, Duncan Jones - writer and director of the successful arthouse sci-fi of the Moon - shows the source code, another entertaining story with confidence identity-based anxiety. Source code is less introspective and more ambitious than the first film of Jones, but is more known and accessible in all the best ways.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Army pilot who wakes up after an accident in Afghanistan to be involved in a military experiment that allows the issue to see the final eight minutes of the life of a recently deceased person - to live, basically, as the person's final moments. What is the advantage of this? Besides being a fun thing to do, which theoretically could inhabit the mind of a murder victim and determine who killed him.
On its surface, is a source of high energy, moderately intelligent thriller about correcting the mistakes and forgiveness of the past. (To do this, Stevens has problems with his father to be resolved.) The movie could have deep background that could be decompressed with additional views ... but I suspect that there is an equal opportunity to all fall apart under scrutiny. When the Moon, Jones wrote, had a dazzling wit to it, the source code (written by Ben Ripley) is more accurate. Jones does not apply a lot of personality to the mind-bending ideas, and could use a little gussying up. It's fun to watch where you are going now, however.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, an Army pilot who wakes up after an accident in Afghanistan to be involved in a military experiment that allows the issue to see the final eight minutes of the life of a recently deceased person - to live, basically, as the person's final moments. What is the advantage of this? Besides being a fun thing to do, which theoretically could inhabit the mind of a murder victim and determine who killed him.
On its surface, is a source of high energy, moderately intelligent thriller about correcting the mistakes and forgiveness of the past. (To do this, Stevens has problems with his father to be resolved.) The movie could have deep background that could be decompressed with additional views ... but I suspect that there is an equal opportunity to all fall apart under scrutiny. When the Moon, Jones wrote, had a dazzling wit to it, the source code (written by Ben Ripley) is more accurate. Jones does not apply a lot of personality to the mind-bending ideas, and could use a little gussying up. It's fun to watch where you are going now, however.
6. Death ProofDeath Proof is a wickedly brilliant slice of tart, trash cinema, posing as one sort of film halfway through and later revealing itself to be something stronger. The great thing about Tarantino is his love of cinema and his love for his characters. Sure, he objectifies them, but he also manages to respect them enough to elevate his female characters above the exploitative archetypes they are portraying. I don’t want to make Death Proof more than it is but the fact remains it is a lot more than it should be. It’s a pleasurable little diversion from a major filmmaker that I’d normally call forgettable were it not for the memorable characters (particularly Tracie Thoms’ Kim and Rosario Dawson’s Abernathy) and one of the all-time greatest car chases (featuring the amazing, feline Zoe Bell).5. Jackie BrownThe prints of two distinct writers (Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard) are all over Jackie Brown and they mesh beautifully. Jackie Brown was quickly labeled a disappointment by critics but a sign of maturation from its fans. To me it’s just a really strong character-driven caper. Yes, this is the rare “hip” film about people well past their primes, but both Pam Grier and Robert Forster are terrific. Bridget Fonda is most surprising as a feisty surfer girl who has also seen better days.4. Reservoir DogsWhen I watched Reservoir Dogs on VHS many years ago I got that electric jolt, that excitement that I rarely feel these days (except maybe when Tarantino or the Coens are releasing a new movie). On the surface, it shouldn’t have been anything exceptional, but the dialogue was so funny and so fierce, the performances were so on point that I finished the movie, waited for the tape to rewind and started the movie all over again. If I’m a Tarantino addict, Reservoir Dogswas the first time I inhaled. I’ve been hooked ever since.3. Inglourious BasterdsI struggled with placing these top three but I do believe the following films are the absolute pinnacle when it comes to Tarantino’s craft and ability to entertain. I knew when the credits rolled in 2009 that I had seen the year’s best film. Nothing would beat it. Now I’m a pretty optimistic fellow. Cynical on the outside, optimistic on the inside. AndAvatar was my most highly-anticipated film of 2009. But I knew, nothing — not even another great James Cameron entertainment — was going to dethrone Basterds. It’s a circus film filled with freaks, lions, clowns and wonderful narrative acrobatics. And I loved how it blended different genres (the western, the World War II men-on-a-mission movie) and wrapped it all in a love letter to cinema. This is probably Tarantino’s best Brian De Palma and Leone imitation, as he is able to ratchet up tension better than ever before with at least two scenes that will go down as all-time classics (the brilliant, Leonesque opening and the masterfully put together confrontation in a bar basement). What I love about Tarantino’s movies is if you tell people what they’re about — and you actually listen to yourself — there’s no way they should work. That they also manage to blow almost every other film you’ve seen out of the water is a feat only a ringmaster of Tarantino’s caliber could pull off.2. Pulp FictionQuentin’s serving of three unconventional gangster stories was pretty much the greatest movie on the planet when I saw it in 1994, even after seeing Reservoir Dogs, I still hadn’t seen anything like it. Who were these characters? What universe did they live in? Where could I get Samuel L. Jackson’s hair? Pulp Fiction is yet another movie for cinema’s most faithful lovers by a self-described “movie geek” and it’s as potent a crime film today as it was seventeen years ago.1. Kill BillOf course I’m going to cheat and lump the two Kill Bill movies together because ultimately that’s why it’s number one: together they are the best action epic in the last twenty years this side of Lord of the Rings. Tarantino has been flirting with the western genre for a long time now, particularly in Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (and if rumors are correct, he will finally make due on his flirtations). There is a connection between the samurai film and the western and he exploits that bond in a hugely successful fashion here. The Bride is his Man With No Name, his Yojimbo, his Sanjuro, only she carries a very real emotional investment for the viewer (Oh yes, Uma Thurman should have been nominated for her work as The Bride). These movies are very aware of their own movieness. That isn’t the flaw, that is the fun. When The Bride’s (obviously model) airplane flies over a model city of Tokyo with model cars moving every so awkwardly, when she hops on a Kawasaki wearing Bruce Lee’s yellow track suit from Game of Death to the Green Hornet theme, we aren’t laughing Uma Thurman’s Bride off the screen, we are cheering her on because we are engaged in an experience with the filmmaker that I would argue is unmatched by any other experience with any other filmmaker today. When she calls out O-Ren Ishii for battle, when Budd looks into her eyes solemnly as she is being buried alive, these are real emotionally driven moments that the film somehow, some way earns through the mad absurdity of Tarantino’s vision. And he’s throwing a lot of vision your way.
6. Death Proof
Death Proof is a wickedly brilliant slice of tart, trash cinema, posing as one sort of film halfway through and later revealing itself to be something stronger. The great thing about Tarantino is his love of cinema and his love for his characters. Sure, he objectifies them, but he also manages to respect them enough to elevate his female characters above the exploitative archetypes they are portraying. I don’t want to make Death Proof more than it is but the fact remains it is a lot more than it should be. It’s a pleasurable little diversion from a major filmmaker that I’d normally call forgettable were it not for the memorable characters (particularly Tracie Thoms’ Kim and Rosario Dawson’s Abernathy) and one of the all-time greatest car chases (featuring the amazing, feline Zoe Bell).
5. Jackie Brown
The prints of two distinct writers (Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard) are all over Jackie Brown and they mesh beautifully. Jackie Brown was quickly labeled a disappointment by critics but a sign of maturation from its fans. To me it’s just a really strong character-driven caper. Yes, this is the rare “hip” film about people well past their primes, but both Pam Grier and Robert Forster are terrific. Bridget Fonda is most surprising as a feisty surfer girl who has also seen better days.
4. Reservoir Dogs
When I watched Reservoir Dogs on VHS many years ago I got that electric jolt, that excitement that I rarely feel these days (except maybe when Tarantino or the Coens are releasing a new movie). On the surface, it shouldn’t have been anything exceptional, but the dialogue was so funny and so fierce, the performances were so on point that I finished the movie, waited for the tape to rewind and started the movie all over again. If I’m a Tarantino addict, Reservoir Dogswas the first time I inhaled. I’ve been hooked ever since.
3. Inglourious Basterds
I struggled with placing these top three but I do believe the following films are the absolute pinnacle when it comes to Tarantino’s craft and ability to entertain. I knew when the credits rolled in 2009 that I had seen the year’s best film. Nothing would beat it. Now I’m a pretty optimistic fellow. Cynical on the outside, optimistic on the inside. AndAvatar was my most highly-anticipated film of 2009. But I knew, nothing — not even another great James Cameron entertainment — was going to dethrone Basterds. It’s a circus film filled with freaks, lions, clowns and wonderful narrative acrobatics. And I loved how it blended different genres (the western, the World War II men-on-a-mission movie) and wrapped it all in a love letter to cinema. This is probably Tarantino’s best Brian De Palma and Leone imitation, as he is able to ratchet up tension better than ever before with at least two scenes that will go down as all-time classics (the brilliant, Leonesque opening and the masterfully put together confrontation in a bar basement). What I love about Tarantino’s movies is if you tell people what they’re about — and you actually listen to yourself — there’s no way they should work. That they also manage to blow almost every other film you’ve seen out of the water is a feat only a ringmaster of Tarantino’s caliber could pull off.
2. Pulp Fiction
Quentin’s serving of three unconventional gangster stories was pretty much the greatest movie on the planet when I saw it in 1994, even after seeing Reservoir Dogs, I still hadn’t seen anything like it. Who were these characters? What universe did they live in? Where could I get Samuel L. Jackson’s hair? Pulp Fiction is yet another movie for cinema’s most faithful lovers by a self-described “movie geek” and it’s as potent a crime film today as it was seventeen years ago.
1. Kill Bill
Of course I’m going to cheat and lump the two Kill Bill movies together because ultimately that’s why it’s number one: together they are the best action epic in the last twenty years this side of Lord of the Rings. Tarantino has been flirting with the western genre for a long time now, particularly in Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (and if rumors are correct, he will finally make due on his flirtations). There is a connection between the samurai film and the western and he exploits that bond in a hugely successful fashion here. The Bride is his Man With No Name, his Yojimbo, his Sanjuro, only she carries a very real emotional investment for the viewer (Oh yes, Uma Thurman should have been nominated for her work as The Bride). These movies are very aware of their own movieness. That isn’t the flaw, that is the fun. When The Bride’s (obviously model) airplane flies over a model city of Tokyo with model cars moving every so awkwardly, when she hops on a Kawasaki wearing Bruce Lee’s yellow track suit from Game of Death to the Green Hornet theme, we aren’t laughing Uma Thurman’s Bride off the screen, we are cheering her on because we are engaged in an experience with the filmmaker that I would argue is unmatched by any other experience with any other filmmaker today. When she calls out O-Ren Ishii for battle, when Budd looks into her eyes solemnly as she is being buried alive, these are real emotionally driven moments that the film somehow, some way earns through the mad absurdity of Tarantino’s vision. And he’s throwing a lot of vision your way.
Review: Battle: Los Angeles
Sheer nonsense at best and annoyingly pointless at its worst.
Everyone loves to hate in Los Angeles for being too big, too full of traffic, and too difficult to overcome. Well, those who hate, joy and delight in the prospect of Los Angeles being attacked, especially by invading nameless, faceless stranger in place of the very real threats that concern us. It is possible that no one likes to see Los Angeles destroyed more than the Lakers, and as highways collapsed and the main city center was burned down during the Battle: The Angelesthere was a general murmur of satisfaction in the crowd . There is nothing you can do about the traffic on a given day, but forces beyond their control were destroying everything, so there is something very cathartic about it.
As for plot goes, without giving too much away, if you've seen Independence Day, will have an idea of what is happening. When a large-scale attack against the world by an unknown group of alien invaders begins, a group of Marines stationed near Los Angeles should make your way to a police station to rescue civilians and find a safe route back before any arbitrary attack occurs. The usual cast of characters here is predictable: the young lieutenant's new wife and unborn child, the Navy planning her upcoming wedding, the boy's dead brother, the recruit virgin, and the grizzled sergeant who seek to leave the service, just to name a few. The few faces that will recognize Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan, and not much can be said of any of them in the form of action.
A rarity among many is the fact that Los Angeles is quite unrecognizable in the film, much of the action takes place in Santa Monica, which is quite indifferent, but no pictures of the Hollywood sign getting blown up or anything thereof. I guess the reason is that Los Angeles really is a lot like any other city consumed by urban sprawl - we have no Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower to distinguish and differentiate their place. Instead our exports are our ambassadors around the world: the beaches, good weather, TV shows, movies and movie stars. Ultimately meaningless and yet very pleasant in a strange way, Battle: Los Angeles is meaningless at best and nonsense at its worst annoying.
As for plot goes, without giving too much away, if you've seen Independence Day, will have an idea of what is happening. When a large-scale attack against the world by an unknown group of alien invaders begins, a group of Marines stationed near Los Angeles should make your way to a police station to rescue civilians and find a safe route back before any arbitrary attack occurs. The usual cast of characters here is predictable: the young lieutenant's new wife and unborn child, the Navy planning her upcoming wedding, the boy's dead brother, the recruit virgin, and the grizzled sergeant who seek to leave the service, just to name a few. The few faces that will recognize Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan, and not much can be said of any of them in the form of action.
A rarity among many is the fact that Los Angeles is quite unrecognizable in the film, much of the action takes place in Santa Monica, which is quite indifferent, but no pictures of the Hollywood sign getting blown up or anything thereof. I guess the reason is that Los Angeles really is a lot like any other city consumed by urban sprawl - we have no Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower to distinguish and differentiate their place. Instead our exports are our ambassadors around the world: the beaches, good weather, TV shows, movies and movie stars. Ultimately meaningless and yet very pleasant in a strange way, Battle: Los Angeles is meaningless at best and nonsense at its worst annoying.
A dumb mess, stylish but ludicrous.
"Little Red Riding Hood," as many fairy tales, is a dark and gruesome history to be traumatizing to children more than they do. If a smart filmmaker wanted to emphasize that side of it, actually carry out the horror, maybe even a wolf into a werewolf, a gothic romance set the balance of the supernatural elements - well, that would be a good thing to do. Someone should do that.
Someone other than Catherine Hardwicke, I mean. This he did, called Little Red Riding Hood is a silly mess, stylish, but ridiculous. Paralyzed from the beginning of the script by David Leslie Johnson cheesy (orphans), Hardwicke makes things worse with a self-serious tone that is grossly at odds with the frivolity inherent in the material. For you see, this is more than a fantasy tale set in the Middle Ages in a small village near a dark forest. It is also a soap opera! With forbidden passions and love triangles and all! Hardwicke directed Twilight, you may recall, apparently would like to continue directing, again and again.
movie you want to feel like a romantic drama and a supernatural thriller, but it feels like it or not. What you probably needed was a vampire.
"Little Red Riding Hood," as many fairy tales, is a dark and gruesome history to be traumatizing to children more than they do. If a smart filmmaker wanted to emphasize that side of it, actually carry out the horror, maybe even a wolf into a werewolf, a gothic romance set the balance of the supernatural elements - well, that would be a good thing to do. Someone should do that.
Someone other than Catherine Hardwicke, I mean. This he did, called Little Red Riding Hood is a silly mess, stylish, but ridiculous. Paralyzed from the beginning of the script by David Leslie Johnson cheesy (orphans), Hardwicke makes things worse with a self-serious tone that is grossly at odds with the frivolity inherent in the material. For you see, this is more than a fantasy tale set in the Middle Ages in a small village near a dark forest. It is also a soap opera! With forbidden passions and love triangles and all! Hardwicke directed Twilight, you may recall, apparently would like to continue directing, again and again.
movie you want to feel like a romantic drama and a supernatural thriller, but it feels like it or not. What you probably needed was a vampire.
Someone other than Catherine Hardwicke, I mean. This he did, called Little Red Riding Hood is a silly mess, stylish, but ridiculous. Paralyzed from the beginning of the script by David Leslie Johnson cheesy (orphans), Hardwicke makes things worse with a self-serious tone that is grossly at odds with the frivolity inherent in the material. For you see, this is more than a fantasy tale set in the Middle Ages in a small village near a dark forest. It is also a soap opera! With forbidden passions and love triangles and all! Hardwicke directed Twilight, you may recall, apparently would like to continue directing, again and again.
movie you want to feel like a romantic drama and a supernatural thriller, but it feels like it or not. What you probably needed was a vampire.
Review: Rango
Sharp, well-made, and interesting.
Range may well be one of the first animation films in recent years that it is difficult to place in all the best ways. A people in the western city of entertainment, with menacing bandits, intimidated, and plenty of sticks, is also long range, not at all easy to see, and noticeably strange. But that might be what it does well.
The basic plot is pretty simple: After a serious accident, a chameleon finds its way into a small city filled with all kinds of desert creatures and beset by drought and bandits. Through his bravado, range becomes sheriff and effectively to the height of his great speech in the face of big problems.
Johnny Depp voices range, and his voice is so chameleon-like character, but this should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with his career. Isla Fisher is charming if unrecognizable as beans, a local lizard trying to save his father's farm. Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, and Timothy Olyphant also appear, among others.
In one hour and 47 minutes, the film is long, but with rising ticket prices is good to feel that we got value for money. Range is strong and well made and interesting, but lacks the emotional resonance of a movie like How to Train Your Dragon. And that may well be my problem with it. I was expecting something easy and this film was a risk, took the opportunity to be ugly, being a bit long and complicated, and although it is fairly closely the conventions of the genre, is ultimately quite different from what we have seen in the past few years.
The basic plot is pretty simple: After a serious accident, a chameleon finds its way into a small city filled with all kinds of desert creatures and beset by drought and bandits. Through his bravado, range becomes sheriff and effectively to the height of his great speech in the face of big problems.
Johnny Depp voices range, and his voice is so chameleon-like character, but this should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with his career. Isla Fisher is charming if unrecognizable as beans, a local lizard trying to save his father's farm. Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, and Timothy Olyphant also appear, among others.
In one hour and 47 minutes, the film is long, but with rising ticket prices is good to feel that we got value for money. Range is strong and well made and interesting, but lacks the emotional resonance of a movie like How to Train Your Dragon. And that may well be my problem with it. I was expecting something easy and this film was a risk, took the opportunity to be ugly, being a bit long and complicated, and although it is fairly closely the conventions of the genre, is ultimately quite different from what we have seen in the past few years.
A solid concept, well executed.
I am pleased to report that The Adjustment Bureau, partTruman Show, part of the game, voltage characteristics along legitimate. Concept is also relatively high, since it is an adaptation of a short story by Philip K. Dick, Scanner Darkly to andTotal Recall, and Minority Report. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt carry most of burden, and do so with professionalism. A solid and well-executed concept that forces us to think a little? Win!
The themes of The Adjustment Bureau doubles. The most prominent is the idea that there is a master plan in place, controlled by a higher power, which sends agents to give form and shape reality as necessary. Your alarm did not go? It might be sending officers to be adjusted. Missing the bus? The world might be getting back on track. The major force behind all this is known by the agents as "President", and humans rarely aware of the President. Matt Damon, who plays a songressman up-and-coming candidate for senator in the great state of New York, made aware of the agents, and reveals his life from there. You can imagine what it would be disconcerting to look behind the curtain of a higher power, and Damon vacillates between disbelief and poverty. Compounding the problem is that agents of this "power" have decided not to follow up an acquaintance of the lady who just made (Emily Blunt), instead of telling him to forget it and let it go. Naturally, you can not emotionally fulfilling.
The second issue of The Adjustment Bureau is buried just below the surface, but it's there, and is the idea of the effect of a soulmate in motivation. Are those who yearn for most, it can not find happiness, they kept pushing people beyond all reason to achieve greatness? Is the disc comes from the will, and did not achieve, love? Damon is forced to deal with this idea in mind, since his political career is at stake, to a large extent determined by their romantic choices.
The most enjoyable aspect of the film is that it allows us, as groups, to discover and consider the organic world. Who are these mysterious and powerful agents? What the hell is the master plan? Damon should go with your heart or your intellect, especially given their chance against a force omniscient? The Office of adjustment has been thinking of all angles, and credit is a new breed of director George Nolfi that never leaves the accelerator pedal. The momentum of the film argues, and the lack of 3-D effects, and other gimmicky The Adjustment Bureau gives a seriousness lacking in most versions of March.
I am pleased to report that The Adjustment Bureau, partTruman Show, part of the game, voltage characteristics along legitimate. Concept is also relatively high, since it is an adaptation of a short story by Philip K. Dick, Scanner Darkly to andTotal Recall, and Minority Report. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt carry most of burden, and do so with professionalism. A solid and well-executed concept that forces us to think a little? Win!
The themes of The Adjustment Bureau doubles. The most prominent is the idea that there is a master plan in place, controlled by a higher power, which sends agents to give form and shape reality as necessary. Your alarm did not go? It might be sending officers to be adjusted. Missing the bus? The world might be getting back on track. The major force behind all this is known by the agents as "President", and humans rarely aware of the President. Matt Damon, who plays a songressman up-and-coming candidate for senator in the great state of New York, made aware of the agents, and reveals his life from there. You can imagine what it would be disconcerting to look behind the curtain of a higher power, and Damon vacillates between disbelief and poverty. Compounding the problem is that agents of this "power" have decided not to follow up an acquaintance of the lady who just made (Emily Blunt), instead of telling him to forget it and let it go. Naturally, you can not emotionally fulfilling.
The second issue of The Adjustment Bureau is buried just below the surface, but it's there, and is the idea of the effect of a soulmate in motivation. Are those who yearn for most, it can not find happiness, they kept pushing people beyond all reason to achieve greatness? Is the disc comes from the will, and did not achieve, love? Damon is forced to deal with this idea in mind, since his political career is at stake, to a large extent determined by their romantic choices.
The most enjoyable aspect of the film is that it allows us, as groups, to discover and consider the organic world. Who are these mysterious and powerful agents? What the hell is the master plan? Damon should go with your heart or your intellect, especially given their chance against a force omniscient? The Office of adjustment has been thinking of all angles, and credit is a new breed of director George Nolfi that never leaves the accelerator pedal. The momentum of the film argues, and the lack of 3-D effects, and other gimmicky The Adjustment Bureau gives a seriousness lacking in most versions of March.
The themes of The Adjustment Bureau doubles. The most prominent is the idea that there is a master plan in place, controlled by a higher power, which sends agents to give form and shape reality as necessary. Your alarm did not go? It might be sending officers to be adjusted. Missing the bus? The world might be getting back on track. The major force behind all this is known by the agents as "President", and humans rarely aware of the President. Matt Damon, who plays a songressman up-and-coming candidate for senator in the great state of New York, made aware of the agents, and reveals his life from there. You can imagine what it would be disconcerting to look behind the curtain of a higher power, and Damon vacillates between disbelief and poverty. Compounding the problem is that agents of this "power" have decided not to follow up an acquaintance of the lady who just made (Emily Blunt), instead of telling him to forget it and let it go. Naturally, you can not emotionally fulfilling.
The second issue of The Adjustment Bureau is buried just below the surface, but it's there, and is the idea of the effect of a soulmate in motivation. Are those who yearn for most, it can not find happiness, they kept pushing people beyond all reason to achieve greatness? Is the disc comes from the will, and did not achieve, love? Damon is forced to deal with this idea in mind, since his political career is at stake, to a large extent determined by their romantic choices.
The most enjoyable aspect of the film is that it allows us, as groups, to discover and consider the organic world. Who are these mysterious and powerful agents? What the hell is the master plan? Damon should go with your heart or your intellect, especially given their chance against a force omniscient? The Office of adjustment has been thinking of all angles, and credit is a new breed of director George Nolfi that never leaves the accelerator pedal. The momentum of the film argues, and the lack of 3-D effects, and other gimmicky The Adjustment Bureau gives a seriousness lacking in most versions of March.
Review: Drive Angry
Feels like the very reason we can't have nice things.
Angry Drive is all jagged edges and broken promises. Take the title as a descriptor of simple, easy to implement. Except they are not driving all the tricks that many, in any case, this is a great movie road trip, with more shots Charger Chevelle SS 454 69 or just moseying down the old road. And then consider the "anger" in appearance, once again missing. In any case, we have a cold and distant search for revenge, but none of passion or depth of the word "anger" spread. But what if we do not separate words - maybe Madas Nicolas Cage is behind the wheel? No, no joy can be found there either. It is efficient driving, perhaps even lethal driving, but nothing approaching driving angry. In fact, you can find a better example of "driving mad" in a movie called "Groundhog Day, and that even after the star encourages Groundhog not drive angry. So yes, Drive Angry, that's right nightmare of the city the first time.
Angry Drive is in the unfortunate position of having no real reason to exist, terrible dialogue, no plot to speak, and the relatively poor effects. The good news? Less than two hours, the soundtrack is abysmal, and there are a lot of laughs. However, if care professionals can try to make a movie so terrible I do not see any reason why that can not be rewarded with only our contempt and derision.
Angry Drive is in the unfortunate position of having no real reason to exist, terrible dialogue, no plot to speak, and the relatively poor effects. The good news? Less than two hours, the soundtrack is abysmal, and there are a lot of laughs. However, if care professionals can try to make a movie so terrible I do not see any reason why that can not be rewarded with only our contempt and derision.
An enjoyable romp.
It makes perfect sense that a film produced by Michael Bay, opens with a shot around the world. Then, in the pan, closer, closer, until finally we are in a hut in the rainforest. Two men are clearly in hiding, on the run, each evening comfortably in his hammock, trying to get some sleep. But wait! A noise at the door - if that may be going over them in such a remote place? Mogadorians! What is a Mogadorian? It's a bad guy! Oh, no, they pursue one of the "good" guys! But who are these "good" guys?
That's basically the plot of I'm the number four, the story of the "good" kids are sequentially persecuted and killed by Mogadorians. There are nine (total) quasi-heroes, Loriens call, and each is protected by something like a bodyguard or mentor. To give away more of the plot would be a disservice, so let's call it a "thriller", say the hunters and the prey, and break down who does what in the film.
Am I Number four is a thriller that moves in February, and a film that desperately cries out for a sequel. It is not perfect, and there are some random excerpts seem to be a function of addressing a history as long, but overall the film works and is entertaining routine. The young actors bring the story prominently on their shoulders and concepts presented are convincing. Perhaps the recent history of February as a movie "dump" be overly generous to me, but I I'm the number four was a pleasant romp.
It makes perfect sense that a film produced by Michael Bay, opens with a shot around the world. Then, in the pan, closer, closer, until finally we are in a hut in the rainforest. Two men are clearly in hiding, on the run, each evening comfortably in his hammock, trying to get some sleep. But wait! A noise at the door - if that may be going over them in such a remote place? Mogadorians! What is a Mogadorian? It's a bad guy! Oh, no, they pursue one of the "good" guys! But who are these "good" guys?
That's basically the plot of I'm the number four, the story of the "good" kids are sequentially persecuted and killed by Mogadorians. There are nine (total) quasi-heroes, Loriens call, and each is protected by something like a bodyguard or mentor. To give away more of the plot would be a disservice, so let's call it a "thriller", say the hunters and the prey, and break down who does what in the film.
Am I Number four is a thriller that moves in February, and a film that desperately cries out for a sequel. It is not perfect, and there are some random excerpts seem to be a function of addressing a history as long, but overall the film works and is entertaining routine. The young actors bring the story prominently on their shoulders and concepts presented are convincing. Perhaps the recent history of February as a movie "dump" be overly generous to me, but I I'm the number four was a pleasant romp.
That's basically the plot of I'm the number four, the story of the "good" kids are sequentially persecuted and killed by Mogadorians. There are nine (total) quasi-heroes, Loriens call, and each is protected by something like a bodyguard or mentor. To give away more of the plot would be a disservice, so let's call it a "thriller", say the hunters and the prey, and break down who does what in the film.
Am I Number four is a thriller that moves in February, and a film that desperately cries out for a sequel. It is not perfect, and there are some random excerpts seem to be a function of addressing a history as long, but overall the film works and is entertaining routine. The young actors bring the story prominently on their shoulders and concepts presented are convincing. Perhaps the recent history of February as a movie "dump" be overly generous to me, but I I'm the number four was a pleasant romp.
Review: Unknown
A mundane action vehicle.
Well, yes, eventually becomes known the kind of movie in which an amnesiac tough guy tells an enemy, "I forget everything. I remember how to kill a hole **." What is a pity, because for a while is not that kind of movie at all.
The psychological thriller, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (orphans), Liam Neeson stars as an American botanist named Martin Harris - or "Doctor Martin Harris," as he continues to stand out. Dr. Martin Harris and his wife ice, Liz (January Jones) are in Berlin for a biotechnology conference when Martin was injured in an accident. He wakes in a hospital four days after finding no one in your life have no idea who he is.
But eventually the plot grows increasingly absurd, becoming an intriguing mystery, Memento-style action in a more mundane vehicle. The explanation for the situation of Martin's smart, how everything goes after receiving the explanation, not so much. (And the less said about white January Jones' performance of emotion, the better.) Neeson is always magnetic, however, even when it's just a repeat performance and delivery Taken cheese line, as is the time need to do here.
The psychological thriller, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (orphans), Liam Neeson stars as an American botanist named Martin Harris - or "Doctor Martin Harris," as he continues to stand out. Dr. Martin Harris and his wife ice, Liz (January Jones) are in Berlin for a biotechnology conference when Martin was injured in an accident. He wakes in a hospital four days after finding no one in your life have no idea who he is.
But eventually the plot grows increasingly absurd, becoming an intriguing mystery, Memento-style action in a more mundane vehicle. The explanation for the situation of Martin's smart, how everything goes after receiving the explanation, not so much. (And the less said about white January Jones' performance of emotion, the better.) Neeson is always magnetic, however, even when it's just a repeat performance and delivery Taken cheese line, as is the time need to do here.
A children's film that is reasonably cute.
As a result, it is not all that much gnome-related humor. In addition, the tenuous connection between the divine tragedy of Shakespeare and Gnomeo and Juliet lies solely on the word "Romeo" which sounds something like the word "Gnome". We assume that if the bard had named her playRichard and Juliet, then Elton John has never been involved and fully exploited the genre and comedy gnome would be gone forever dormant, a holder of a game of strange words in the road not taken . Of course, that is neither here nor there, and we're basically left with a children's film that is reasonably nice. Douglas Adams might have called it "mostly harmless."
This updated version of Montagues and Capulets has been simplified for young people, but there are a lot of jokes for fans of Shakespeare. Two neighbors (who happen to hate each other) each have a huge garden filled with gnome. Gnomes on one side is called the red, the other group is known as the blues. So, is Crips vs Blood, gnome style! The gnomes are consistent with the logic of some principles, human beings are always hard to see them, are fragile, and lawnmowers race against each other. So far, so good.
So what's left? This does not reach high artistic levels of Pixar or Dreamworks standards Animation highly entertaining, although children under 10 should enjoy it. The 3-D is relatively useless, but that seems to be in the great tradition of 3-D in those days. Gnomeo and Juliet is a movie about finding love gnomes, rising above their differences, and Elton John. Not much to it, but it is completely absurd visual experience. As such, gnome if you want.
As a result, it is not all that much gnome-related humor. In addition, the tenuous connection between the divine tragedy of Shakespeare and Gnomeo and Juliet lies solely on the word "Romeo" which sounds something like the word "Gnome". We assume that if the bard had named her playRichard and Juliet, then Elton John has never been involved and fully exploited the genre and comedy gnome would be gone forever dormant, a holder of a game of strange words in the road not taken . Of course, that is neither here nor there, and we're basically left with a children's film that is reasonably nice. Douglas Adams might have called it "mostly harmless."
This updated version of Montagues and Capulets has been simplified for young people, but there are a lot of jokes for fans of Shakespeare. Two neighbors (who happen to hate each other) each have a huge garden filled with gnome. Gnomes on one side is called the red, the other group is known as the blues. So, is Crips vs Blood, gnome style! The gnomes are consistent with the logic of some principles, human beings are always hard to see them, are fragile, and lawnmowers race against each other. So far, so good.
So what's left? This does not reach high artistic levels of Pixar or Dreamworks standards Animation highly entertaining, although children under 10 should enjoy it. The 3-D is relatively useless, but that seems to be in the great tradition of 3-D in those days. Gnomeo and Juliet is a movie about finding love gnomes, rising above their differences, and Elton John. Not much to it, but it is completely absurd visual experience. As such, gnome if you want.
This updated version of Montagues and Capulets has been simplified for young people, but there are a lot of jokes for fans of Shakespeare. Two neighbors (who happen to hate each other) each have a huge garden filled with gnome. Gnomes on one side is called the red, the other group is known as the blues. So, is Crips vs Blood, gnome style! The gnomes are consistent with the logic of some principles, human beings are always hard to see them, are fragile, and lawnmowers race against each other. So far, so good.
So what's left? This does not reach high artistic levels of Pixar or Dreamworks standards Animation highly entertaining, although children under 10 should enjoy it. The 3-D is relatively useless, but that seems to be in the great tradition of 3-D in those days. Gnomeo and Juliet is a movie about finding love gnomes, rising above their differences, and Elton John. Not much to it, but it is completely absurd visual experience. As such, gnome if you want.
Review: Just Go With It
This movie is exactly what you think it's going to be.
Just Go With It wants to drag in a web of deception and hilarity, like writing with us, as it serves a tired gag after another without ever daring to do something useful. Simple demand Just Go With It not only becomes useful words of advice but also an easy excuse, and finally a desperate appeal.
Danny (Adam Sandler) is a successful plastic surgeon who is his assistant and long time friend Kathy (Jennifer Aniston) who pretends to be his ex-wife to cover up a lie, he says Palmer, a hot chick ( Brooklyn Decker) has fallen in love with. As things get more serious between Danny and Palmer, everything starts to spiral out of control when it suddenly seems that Danny and Katherine have children, and after a few more lies, everyone ends up in Hawaii trying to get to know each others. Over time, what was but a false relationship to help a friend begins to become something more, but Danny and Katherine recognize it for what it is?
Just go with it is almost two hours, and it is difficult to figure out why. The relationship between Decker and Danny Palmer Sandler is hasty and poorly developed to move us along the right in the thick of the confusion in Hawaii and around the world, except Palmer is a joke: trying to help old Danny win her heart. Palmer is well-intentioned, sweet and beautiful, but the growing feeling among Danny and Katherine are undeniable and, finally, the public is not sure where to commit. There is no real villain here, pretty people trying to break into the world. Which is not terrible weight, and it is not convincing, sure as hell should be fun. What is not.
This film is exactly what you think is going to be: entirely predictable, minimally fun, and pretty boring. If you're a big fan of anyone in the movie, go see it, but otherwise just wait and rent it.
Danny (Adam Sandler) is a successful plastic surgeon who is his assistant and long time friend Kathy (Jennifer Aniston) who pretends to be his ex-wife to cover up a lie, he says Palmer, a hot chick ( Brooklyn Decker) has fallen in love with. As things get more serious between Danny and Palmer, everything starts to spiral out of control when it suddenly seems that Danny and Katherine have children, and after a few more lies, everyone ends up in Hawaii trying to get to know each others. Over time, what was but a false relationship to help a friend begins to become something more, but Danny and Katherine recognize it for what it is?
Just go with it is almost two hours, and it is difficult to figure out why. The relationship between Decker and Danny Palmer Sandler is hasty and poorly developed to move us along the right in the thick of the confusion in Hawaii and around the world, except Palmer is a joke: trying to help old Danny win her heart. Palmer is well-intentioned, sweet and beautiful, but the growing feeling among Danny and Katherine are undeniable and, finally, the public is not sure where to commit. There is no real villain here, pretty people trying to break into the world. Which is not terrible weight, and it is not convincing, sure as hell should be fun. What is not.
This film is exactly what you think is going to be: entirely predictable, minimally fun, and pretty boring. If you're a big fan of anyone in the movie, go see it, but otherwise just wait and rent it.
Charismatic and entertaining.
A con man who blames his crimes on being a "fool for love." A chameleon who never went to college but passed convincing lawyers, doctors, financial managers, and more to keep the homosexual love of his life (and himself) in matching Mercedes and jet skis. A clever switch of the prison that brings out the doors of the penitentiary in front in bright scarlet shorts. I Love You Phillip Morris is the stuff of movie plots unlikely - however, all true.
Steven Russell, also known as "With the King," the slippery genius that inspired the film, is currently serving a life sentence of 144 years for a curriculum vitae that includes legendary escape criminal felony and embezzlement. Is so closely guarded that happens 23 hours a day in solitary confinement. After seeing Jim Carrey escape justice in their shoes at the director and screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa biopic optimistic, Russell amazed Brit paper The Observer, "They have it down.'s Way of speaking, gestures, clothing - everything. It's surreal. "
As for the nostalgia of the score nasal romantic, warm and cheerful lighting that makes up the cell walls of the sunny yellow stripped Morris', or the happiness of love smitten imprisoned waltz "Chances Are" in his cell ... these details are another matter filmmaker, perhaps an extension of stimulating ferment Morris. Ficarra and Requa When allude to the darker reality of prison is to pull jokes on the dangers of beautiful children's chair. They also appear to detach pieces of Russell Knight facade to expose their desperation to be loved and not the left, your child's panic when his cover is blown, in addition to its self-proclaimed final ruin: his passion for Phillip Morris. After he falls in love with him, everything he does, cons (these do not count?) Y breaks revolve around Morris. Carrey captures brilliantly all - disarming wit and sincerity Russell - with very little of his usual shtick rubber face. And he and McGregor make adorable lovebirds.
The same happens with this film reveals the real Phillip Morris? Is there a real hiding under his many masks Morris? As Morris makes a contrite Russell, who declares his love after one of its plans to waste his happy home and land him in hot water: "How I can know you're not kidding?" Russell's response: "No". I Love You Phillip Morris, and Russell, could be one of with great, but everything is so charismatic and funny, you will not mind.
Steven Russell, also known as "With the King," the slippery genius that inspired the film, is currently serving a life sentence of 144 years for a curriculum vitae that includes legendary escape criminal felony and embezzlement. Is so closely guarded that happens 23 hours a day in solitary confinement. After seeing Jim Carrey escape justice in their shoes at the director and screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa biopic optimistic, Russell amazed Brit paper The Observer, "They have it down.'s Way of speaking, gestures, clothing - everything. It's surreal. "
As for the nostalgia of the score nasal romantic, warm and cheerful lighting that makes up the cell walls of the sunny yellow stripped Morris', or the happiness of love smitten imprisoned waltz "Chances Are" in his cell ... these details are another matter filmmaker, perhaps an extension of stimulating ferment Morris. Ficarra and Requa When allude to the darker reality of prison is to pull jokes on the dangers of beautiful children's chair. They also appear to detach pieces of Russell Knight facade to expose their desperation to be loved and not the left, your child's panic when his cover is blown, in addition to its self-proclaimed final ruin: his passion for Phillip Morris. After he falls in love with him, everything he does, cons (these do not count?) Y breaks revolve around Morris. Carrey captures brilliantly all - disarming wit and sincerity Russell - with very little of his usual shtick rubber face. And he and McGregor make adorable lovebirds.
The same happens with this film reveals the real Phillip Morris? Is there a real hiding under his many masks Morris? As Morris makes a contrite Russell, who declares his love after one of its plans to waste his happy home and land him in hot water: "How I can know you're not kidding?" Russell's response: "No". I Love You Phillip Morris, and Russell, could be one of with great, but everything is so charismatic and funny, you will not mind.
Review: No Strings Attached
A perfectly acceptable romantic comedy.
No strings attached want to pretend that he got the idea of friends with benefits, that somehow this concept has been long and not disputed by gum, it's time for a real exploration of this important issue facing our society. "Can there be sex without hurting someone?" The film leads us to consider, and from the first moment it seems impossible. The problem is that the veteran director Ivan Reitman is not breaking new ground or exploring anything other than the desire very modern and deeply rooted in it all, and we as an audience were pitted against the characters just as we encourage them into a relationship like that make a half-hearted attempt to keep it simple. Love seems to need to overcome barriers and obstacles in this case are not time or space, or related to the family, but the fears and concerns that shape our daily lives.
No Strings Attached is not much fun, the comic moments are the most tired tropes that had been upset over a decade. However, the movie is somewhat realistic, and a complete lie in many others, but at its worst is still a perfectly acceptable romantic comedy. The female characters are capable and strong, if not a little stupid, men are full of bravado and machismo that vanishes when needed, and there is a shortage of idiots in a single line (just a violent offender comes to mind). And let's listen for a film in Los Angeles who actually use the city: Adam is a wizard (unlikely attractive) aspiring writer in a television program that Glee-esque, Emma hangs in the center and the final pair, even in the most famous art museum in LA County. Considering 500 days of summer trying to convince us that Los Angeles was actually more like San Francisco or New York, without any commitment like Los Angeles, the way it is, just bright and clean. No Strings Attached will not surprise or enthrall you, but it is a good way to spend a few hours.
No Strings Attached is not much fun, the comic moments are the most tired tropes that had been upset over a decade. However, the movie is somewhat realistic, and a complete lie in many others, but at its worst is still a perfectly acceptable romantic comedy. The female characters are capable and strong, if not a little stupid, men are full of bravado and machismo that vanishes when needed, and there is a shortage of idiots in a single line (just a violent offender comes to mind). And let's listen for a film in Los Angeles who actually use the city: Adam is a wizard (unlikely attractive) aspiring writer in a television program that Glee-esque, Emma hangs in the center and the final pair, even in the most famous art museum in LA County. Considering 500 days of summer trying to convince us that Los Angeles was actually more like San Francisco or New York, without any commitment like Los Angeles, the way it is, just bright and clean. No Strings Attached will not surprise or enthrall you, but it is a good way to spend a few hours.
A worthy venture.
The road back begins with a spoiler: In 1941, three men walked in India after walking 4,000 miles from Siberia. This is his story. Our question to see the movie: What three will be?
The film is loosely based on Slawomir Rawicz, 1956 bookThe long way, bestselling account of the author's journey, after escaping from a Russian gulag. truth of history has been quite strongly questioned since then, and the film is only "inspired by" the book anyway, so it is best not to think, "Wow, this really happened!" because many of them probably no.
Fiction or not, however, is an incredible story of survival, directed by Peter Weir (The Truman Show, Witness) with his usual skill serious, thorough. It's a pretty good movie, and what prevents it from being better might be endemic to the story. The story of a walk 4. 000 miles is almost inevitably going to have some lag time.
The advantages of putting a prison camp in Siberia are evident, as summarized in one of the guards from the beginning. "Nature is his jailer, and without mercy" Even if the inmates escape from one's own gulag, have a hundreds of miles of frozen wilderness to deal with.
Finally, the movie itself is something of an endurance test, and not as rewarding as it purports to be. But it is a serious and worthy enterprise well produced and occasionally gripping.
The film is loosely based on Slawomir Rawicz, 1956 bookThe long way, bestselling account of the author's journey, after escaping from a Russian gulag. truth of history has been quite strongly questioned since then, and the film is only "inspired by" the book anyway, so it is best not to think, "Wow, this really happened!" because many of them probably no.
Fiction or not, however, is an incredible story of survival, directed by Peter Weir (The Truman Show, Witness) with his usual skill serious, thorough. It's a pretty good movie, and what prevents it from being better might be endemic to the story. The story of a walk 4. 000 miles is almost inevitably going to have some lag time.
The advantages of putting a prison camp in Siberia are evident, as summarized in one of the guards from the beginning. "Nature is his jailer, and without mercy" Even if the inmates escape from one's own gulag, have a hundreds of miles of frozen wilderness to deal with.
Finally, the movie itself is something of an endurance test, and not as rewarding as it purports to be. But it is a serious and worthy enterprise well produced and occasionally gripping.
Review: Rabbit Hole
One of the best dramas of 2010.
Rabbit Hole is the film equivalent of deep tissue massage: painful but cathartic, exhausting but rewarding. It is also, as the massage more enjoyable if undress first, but that's true of most things.
We're doing jokes Rabbit Hole - adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire's play their own Pulitzer Prize winner, directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) - it makes us melancholy sigh when we think of it as a piece significant art or a particularly sad song. However, do not induce despair. We came away from him the hope and the sense of optimism, he recalled that while the tragedy is inevitable, need not be defeated by it.
The story does not sell. I kind of do not want to tell you what it is, because then you will not want to see. But here goes: Rabbit Hole is a marriage that is in mourning after the death of his young son.
I know! That was my reaction too! But there are a lot of beauty to be drawn from this scenario sound depressing, thanks to well-drawn characters, flawless performances and sensitive direction. Where most films of this nature would become maudlin and manipulative, Rabbit Hole remains honest and subtle, refusing to hit on the head with blatant symbolism, awkward or tear jerking.
Rabbit Hole, easily one of the best dramas of 2010, is also one of the most clear. This leads through a dark tunnel, yes, but it reminds us with elegant simplicity, that there is light at the end.
We're doing jokes Rabbit Hole - adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire's play their own Pulitzer Prize winner, directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) - it makes us melancholy sigh when we think of it as a piece significant art or a particularly sad song. However, do not induce despair. We came away from him the hope and the sense of optimism, he recalled that while the tragedy is inevitable, need not be defeated by it.
The story does not sell. I kind of do not want to tell you what it is, because then you will not want to see. But here goes: Rabbit Hole is a marriage that is in mourning after the death of his young son.
I know! That was my reaction too! But there are a lot of beauty to be drawn from this scenario sound depressing, thanks to well-drawn characters, flawless performances and sensitive direction. Where most films of this nature would become maudlin and manipulative, Rabbit Hole remains honest and subtle, refusing to hit on the head with blatant symbolism, awkward or tear jerking.
Rabbit Hole, easily one of the best dramas of 2010, is also one of the most clear. This leads through a dark tunnel, yes, but it reminds us with elegant simplicity, that there is light at the end.
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